The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mid-day meal scheme fails the test: CAG

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Thursday, Apr 26, 2007
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New Delhi

Mid-day meal scheme fails the test: CAG

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Implementation of the mid-day meal scheme in the Capital has been lacking in coordination and overall perspective, leading to delays in assessing the requirements of food grains and differences in quantities of cooked meals provided to children, the latest Comptroller and Auditor General of India report has said.

The performance audit of implementation of the scheme in Delhi covering the period 2001-06 also points to a lack of uniformity in its execution by the Delhi Government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the New Delhi Municipal Council.

"The Government has spent more than Rs. 116 crore on the scheme during the past five years but most of the objectives of the scheme remain unachieved due to lack of coordination between the nodal department and the three implementing agencies, inefficient planning, lack of effective monitoring, non-adherence to quality standards, deficient financial management and poor implementation strategies," says the report.

The mid-day meal programme is a Centrally-sponsored scheme for children of primary stage (Class I to V) in Government, local body and Government-aided schools and has been extended to cover Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres.

Verification of the provision and quality of the meals provided in 400 of a total 2,424 schools showed that as high as 44 per cent of the schools test-checked in audit did not ensure supply of the requisite quantity of meals from the suppliers.

"Test check in audit revealed short supply in a significant number of schools. There, thus, remained every possibility of over-payment to the contractors and denial of the prescribed quantity to the children," the report says.

It also says that nearly 74,000 children enrolled in EGS/AIE centres were yet to benefit from the scheme in Delhi. However, the requirement of food grains projected by the nodal department included food grains required for these children.

"While the MCD was largely able to utilise the funds allocated for the scheme," says the report, "there were huge savings ranging from 15 to 99 per cent in respect of the Directorate of Education and the NDMC that was indicative of either inadequate assessment of requirements or poor implementation."

Indicting the MCD for diversion of funds, the report says that in "gross disregard" of the financial rules, the terms of the sanction and the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee, it transferred Rs. 2. 90 crore from Plan funds of Rs. 25 crore allocated by the Delhi Government for implementation of the scheme during 2004-05 for establishment expenditure or administrative charges.

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