The Hindu : Front Page : Use funds fully for mid-day meals, court tells States

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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Front Page

Use funds fully for mid-day meals, court tells States

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 13. The Supreme Court has directed all States and Union Territories to fully utilise theState and Central funds under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for providing mid-day meal to school children.

A Bench, comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Tarun Chatterjee, while giving the directive on a petition by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), made it clear that under no circumstances the funds allocated under the ICDS and the Prime Minister's Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) should be divertedto other schemes.

All States and UTs should use the PMGY funds in addition to the State allocation and not as a substitute for state funding. The funds should not be returned to the Centre and if returned, detailed explanations for non-utilisation of the funds should be filed in the court.

The Centre, States and UTs should ensure that all amounts allocated for the mid-day meal scheme were released on time so that there was no disruption in feeding the children. All States and UTs should make earnest efforts to cover slums too under the ICDS. It was made clear that all the six lakh anganwadis, through which the food was being supplied, across the country should become operational and the vacancies in them should be filled forthwith.

Pat for commissioners

The Bench appreciated the report submitted by the two Commissioners appointed by the Court, N.C. Saxena and S.R. Sankaran, for the "enormous" work done by them.

The Bench pulled up the Centre for not responding to its direction of increasing the anganwadi centres from six lakhs to 14 lakhs and increasing the allocation a child a day from rupee one to Rs. 2. The Bench pointed out that on April 29 it had directed the Centre to file an affidavit within three months.

Expressing anguish the Bench said: ``It is most unfortunate that instead of three months, nearly six months have expired and the Government of India has still not filed the affidavit and instead an oral application is made seeking more time. We are shocked at the attitude of the Central Government in respect of giving nutritious food to all children, though in practice it concerns those unfortunate sections of society who can ill afford to provide nutritious food to the children of the age group of 0-6.'' It noted that a large number of children in this age group remain malnourished in the country.

The Court granted two weeks time to the Centre for its response.

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