Narnaul. children at lunch. file photo
Narnaul. children at lunch. file photo
Satish Saini / Narnaul. The Department of Education does not provide funding for lunch in government schools. Students should not be deprived of food, the school administration forces them to withdraw funds from other funds or expenses from their own pockets. It’s been a long time, not a day or two, but three months. Aside from wheat and rice, teachers had to spend money from their own pockets on other materials, even spices and cylinders. In addition, the chef who prepared this meal has not received a salary for four months. Even after consultation with the top officials of the administration and the Ministry of Education, the situation remains the same.
According to the information, there is a midday meal. As part of this, students in the country’s elementary and middle schools will be provided with a free lunch. Most children come to school on an empty stomach, the children who eat before school are hungry until noon and cannot concentrate on their studies. The midday meal can also serve as a nutritional supplement for children and for their healthy development. Recently, Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal, while chairing the state-level steering committee meeting of the noon meal program, directed officials to conduct studies on increasing the nutritional value of food in different blocks. He said the foods provided under the program include a variety of foods based on fortified flour, rice and millet. Students in Grades I through VIII also receive 200ml of five flavored fortified milk with their lunchtime meal at least three days a week.
Money not even received for spices and fuel, wait
There are 730 primary and secondary government schools in Mahendragarh district, where students from grades I to VIII receive lunch. There’s about 15 minutes in the Department of Education rules. The students receive different foods on different days. It mainly consists of rice, daan, chickpeas, vegetables, kheer, roti. Bajra was also included in this menu in 2018-19 before covid but it was limited to papers only. Bajra could not be taken care of. It is a rule that government agencies provide wheat and rice to schools as needed. For the rest of the other foods, spices and cylinders, the Department of Education funds Rs 5.45 per student for elementary school and Rs 8.17 for middle school. If for some reason the lunch money does not come to the school, the school administration can also take the money from all other funds and later the money they get from the lunch can be put back into the same fund. In this compulsion, many schools withdraw money from other coffers, while the school staff, where there is no money, feeds the children with money from their own pockets. This process has been going on continuously for three months.
Even the cook has not received a salary for 4 months, it is difficult to run the household
The cook prepares lunch. He gets a monthly salary of Rs.3500. In 2022, the Ministry of Education had announced that this salary would be doubled, i.e. seven thousand. Now, if we talk about Mahendragarh district, there are about 1263 cooks here. You haven’t received a salary for four months. Every day she pleads with the school administration that it will be difficult to run the household and that they should give her salary. The school administration also forwards their request to the district officials of the Ministry of Education.
what is de
District education officer Sunil Dutt said there was no major problem related to the content of the lunchtime meal. You have been informed that funds from other funds can be used for this purpose. The point about Cook’s salary is correct. Not only in Mahendragarh district but all over Haryana. Full salary is expected to be received in two to three days.
