ITANAGAR, Jan 11:The implementation of Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme in the Department of Education was reviewed in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Minister Education Honchun Ngandam. The meeting was convened to discuss the issues in implementation of MDM in the districts in view of recent adverse report of the 10^th Joint Review Mission (JRM) of Mid Day Meal program. The meeting was attended by all the DDSEs of the districts, who are the implementing officers of the program in the districts.

The JRM has made 19 observations of which two observations were of very serious nature. These  relate to irregular serving of MDM and false reporting of number of days of MDM served. After prolong discussion, the DDSEs were directed to find out and identify the schools where MDM are not being implemented properly or not being implemented at all. The DDSEs have been directed to surrender the MDM food grains to GoI, where the program is not being implemented properly, as has been recommended by the 10^th JRM.

Responsibility has been fixed on the DDSEs for irregular serving of meal and submission of false reports. The cost of food grains and conversion cost will be recovered from the concerned DDSEs in event of false reporting of MDM implementation. To prevent false reporting, the DDSEs will submit the list of schools to the Directorate of Elementary Education by 20^th January 2018, where MDM are not being regularly served or not served at all.  The food grains against these schools shall have to be surrendered by the DDSEs immediately by submitting monthly report. Further, the Deputy Commissioners have been requested to monitor the implementation of MDM in the districts and ensure that the lapses are looked into seriously and corrective steps are taken immediately.

DDSEs have presented their problems in implementing the MDM scheme in the districts. The DDSEs have pointed out that MDM funds are not being released by the State Education Department in time. Even  the full fund for last 7 months have still not been released by the Department to the districts on the ground that the file has not been cleared by the Finance Department. While rice is available from the FCI but the conversion cost are not available from the government for purchase of cooking items like, dal, oil, salt, green leafy vegetable etc. The school obtained these cooking items on loan from the nearby shops for 2 or 3 months. However, shops have stopped supplying the cooking items when their bills are not cleared by the schools for prolonged period. This leads to irregular serving of MDM in the schools. Similarly, the cook cum helpers are paid Rs. 1000 only per month as a result of which either they are not regular in their cooking duty or they leave their jobs frequently, leading to irregular serving of MDM.

Further, the DDSEs have stated that the transport cost of food grains is very meagre i.e. Rs. 260 only per quintal as a result of which the transporters are not willing to carry the food grain up to the schools. The transporter in most of the cases unload the food grains in the Block Head quarters rather than schools, leading to non-availability of food grain in the schools and irregular serving of meals.

The DDSEs were provided with the details of the observations of the 10^th JRM who visited the State recently. They were also provided with the details of the recommendation of JRM for improving the implementation of the MDM. They have been asked to review the implementation of MDM in the districts by taking corrective steps and streamlining the implementation immediately.

Secretary Education Bidol Tayeng, Director Elementary Education Tapi Gao, SPD SSA Opak Gao and other Directorate officers were also present in the meeting.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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