The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mid-day meals to be extended up to Class XII

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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New Delhi

Mid-day meals to be extended up to Class XII

Manisha Jha

NDMC decision promises far-reaching benefits

It is likely to benefit about 8,000 more kids
Estimated expenditure is about Rs 1.17 crore

NEW DELHI: To improve retention of children in the school system and enhance their nutrition levels, the New Delhi Municipal Council has decided to extend its existing mid-day meal scheme meant for primary students from Class I to Class V to now include students up to Class XII.

According to the Education Department, the scheme’s extension to senior secondary schools is likely to benefit about 8,000 more children in a total of 81 NDMC, NDMC-aided and Navyug schools. The total estimated expenditure for implementing the scheme for nursery to senior secondary level students of NDMC and NDMC-aided schools is said to be about Rs 1.17 crore as per the detailed project proposal prepared by NDMC.

Under the scheme, a nutritive meal of 450 calories and 12 gm protein will be provided at the proposed rate of Rs.3 per day per child by NDMC for the secondary and senior secondary students. The menu would include daal-chawal or sambhar-chawal, poori-subzi or poori-chhole, chana daal pulao or black gram pulao, sweet dalia or kheer, mixed vegetable pulao and any other item suggested by the Central Government, Delhi Government or NDMC.

The mid-day meal scheme extension programme was proposed by the Education Department of the NDMC at the monthly council meeting in July and has been given the go-ahead now. According to Assistant Education Officer Navin Joshi, “advertisements inviting tenders from suppliers of cooked mid day meal have already been issued and the due process of application screening and selection should be over by September. If all goes as per our plans, we should be ready to implement the scheme from October”.

A committee comprising finance, health, welfare and education department officials is being constituted for selecting the supplier for 2007-2008. The supplier who will be assigned the job of mid-day meals will lift the wheat or rice quota directly from the Food Corporation of India godown on the basis of allocations made by the Union Government or NDMC. Currently NDMC has two mid-day meal suppliers, Iskon Food Relief Foundation and Ekta Shakti Foundation.

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