Dholpur : Many claims are being made to provide nutritious food in the mid-day meal to the students studying in Dholpur government schools, but the situation is that the budget for purchasing kitchen items has not been released for the last four months. This is not happening for the first time. Every time dry ration for mid-day meal is supplied to schools, but the budget given for purchasing other necessary items for preparing food is released after several months. In such a situation, the school head has to spend from his own pocket to prepare various dishes.
The number of government schools in the district is 1170. In these schools, mid-day meals are prepared for about 2.5 lakh students from classes 1 to 8, which include students of primary schools and upper primary schools. In this, while Rs 5.45 is spent daily on mid-day meal for every child from first to fifth class, this expenditure on upper primary students increases to Rs 8.17. So the cook cum helpers are getting honorarium on time. For almost three months, the government has not given the budget for mid-day meal material and cook-cum-helpers to the schools. This situation is not only of Dholpur but of the entire state.
Bal Gopal Milk Scheme amount also stuck
Under the Pannadhay Milk Scheme, the honorarium amount for gas, sugar and the person who prepares hot milk for government schools and madrassas is also pending from January to April of the last academic session. The budget department for these amounts has also not been released. The amount of conversion cast for preparing lunch of students from classes 1 to 8 is also not given on time. The situation is that the schools of the district have not been given nutritional conversion cards since last August.
