Amritsar February 26:
Punjab, which is known as the food basket of the nation, is facing difficulty in feeding its schoolchildren. The reason: food stocks it receives from the Centre under the National Nutritional Programme for the midday meal scheme have fallen short in most of the government or aided schools.
Officials blame the “non-cooperative attitude” of the school managements falling under the zila parishads being the main reason for inadequate food stocks for primary and upper primary classes (up to Class VIII). In the wake of their demand for shifting them under the School Education Board, there has been resentment among the school managements falling under the zila parishads across Punjab and they have boycotted several benefits extended to them by the state government. The midday management is one of them.
District midday meal manager Santokh Singh Sewak said this problem had been prevailing in the entire state, especially in Amritsar, Bathinda and Mansa. “Punjab schools need 1.4 lakh MT of food grain, but it has received just 80,000 MT because schools falling under the zila parishad have not submitted their attendance records since October last, on the basis of which food stocks have to be procured from the Centre,” he said.
“Out of the total 865 schools of Amritsar, 250 fall under the zila parishad. But till date, we do not have any data about their number of schoolchildren to be fed. In spite of this, we have been supplying them food stocks on the basis of the approximate calculation of the attendance of the children. This ambiguous evaluation had resulted in shortage of stocks,” he said.
As a stopgap arrangement, the school managements have been conveyed to borrow either from other schools’ stockpile or from their local flour mills or rice dealers, after taking their respective the Pendu Sikhiya Vikas Committee into confidence. On the other hand, some school principals said due to delay in the disbursal of payments, they had often been refused by mill owners for supplying further stock of food grains on credit.
Defying this, Santokh Singh said funds for procuring food stocks till March 15 had been disbursed .“If still there remained any lapse on this part, it will be addressed on priority. Meanwhile, to avoid further problem, we have already moved an application for 250 MT of wheat and the same quantity of rice for the primary group, besides 150 MT each for wheat and rice for upper primary students.
Punjab, which is known as the food basket of the nation, is facing difficulty in feeding its schoolchildren. The reason: food stocks it receives from the Centre under the National Nutritional Programme for the midday meal scheme have fallen short in most of the government or aided schools.
Officials blame the “non-cooperative attitude” of the school managements falling under the zila parishads being the main reason for inadequate food stocks for primary and upper primary classes (up to Class VIII). In the wake of their demand for shifting them under the School Education Board, there has been resentment among the school managements falling under the zila parishads across Punjab and they have boycotted several benefits extended to them by the state government. The midday management is one of them.
District midday meal manager Santokh Singh Sewak said this problem had been prevailing in the entire state, especially in Amritsar, Bathinda and Mansa. “Punjab schools need 1.4 lakh MT of food grain, but it has received just 80,000 MT because schools falling under the zila parishad have not submitted their attendance records since October last, on the basis of which food stocks have to be procured from the Centre,” he said.
“Out of the total 865 schools of Amritsar, 250 fall under the zila parishad. But till date, we do not have any data about their number of schoolchildren to be fed. In spite of this, we have been supplying them food stocks on the basis of the approximate calculation of the attendance of the children. This ambiguous evaluation had resulted in shortage of stocks,” he said.
As a stopgap arrangement, the school managements have been conveyed to borrow either from other schools’ stockpile or from their local flour mills or rice dealers, after taking their respective the Pendu Sikhiya Vikas Committee into confidence. On the other hand, some school principals said due to delay in the disbursal of payments, they had often been refused by mill owners for supplying further stock of food grains on credit.
Defying this, Santokh Singh said funds for procuring food stocks till March 15 had been disbursed .“If still there remained any lapse on this part, it will be addressed on priority. Meanwhile, to avoid further problem, we have already moved an application for 250 MT of wheat and the same quantity of rice for the primary group, besides 150 MT each for wheat and rice for upper primary students.
