The Hindu : More Plan allocation for meal scheme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

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National

More Plan allocation for meal scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. With many a State unable to provide cooked meals to school children as part of the Mid-day Meal Scheme nearly nine years after the launch of the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, the Planning Commission has decided to set aside an additional Rs. 415 crores from the next financial year to ensure that each child — particularly in rural India — gets one hot meal a day.

This amount will be drawn from the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY), which has a provision of giving Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to States. In this case, at least 15 per cent of the ACA under the PMGY will be earmarked and used for meeting the cost of cooking.

Under the scheme, the Centre provides free foodgrains (rice or wheat as is locally applicable) to States and also reimburses the cost of transporting it. The States are expected to mobilise the resources for cooking. However, with most States facing a financial crunch for successive years, the majority of children in as many as 10 States are yet to get the promised cooked meal, which, according to studies, has a direct impact on retention figures.

Currently, 5.74 crore children of the 10.56 crores in the target group get cooked meals. But this is still only 54.3 per cent of the target group as Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi have only attained partial coverage.

This apart, the Government has also decided to extend the programme to upper primary students from 2004-05 and has made an allocation of Rs. 1,675 crores with this end in view.

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