No funds for mid-day meals, Karnal teachers spend from own pocket

Parveen Arora

Karnal, November 14

For three months now, government schools in Haryana's Karnal district have not received funds for the mid-day meal scheme, forcing teachers to spend from their own pocket or purchase ration on credit to feed the children.

In some schools, teachers have temporarily diverted funds meant for parent-teacher associations (PTA), sports, examination, building, child welfare, etc, to serve mid-day meals to students. The teachers said the funds would be replenished once the mid-day meal payments were received from the government.

There are 778 schools in the district where mid-day meals are served to around 95,000 students. The budget for ration and other cooking material has not been released since August while the cooks are awaiting their October salary.

After the revised budget, Rs 5.45 per student is now given for Classes I-V and Rs 8.17 per student for Classes VI-VIII. The salary of a cook is Rs 7,000 and there are 1,853 cooks in the district.

A teacher from Nilokheri block said he had been purchasing ration on credit, but the grocer now appeared running out of patience. Repeated requests to the higher authorities to provide funds had fallen on deaf ears, he said. Requesting the government to release the funds regularly, another teacher from Indri block said he had been spending from his own pocket, but that

"he could do so only till a limit". Deepak Goswami, a member of the district

mid-day meal monitoring committee and former Haryana Rajkiya Prathmik Shikshak Sangh general secretary, said teachers in some schools had little option but to utilise funds lying in other heads. He sought early initiation of the 'Fund Distribution Management System', a programme aimed at streamlining payments for the mid-day meal scheme. Under this, funds will be transferred directly to the accounts of vendors from whom cooking material would be purchased.

District Elementary Education Officer Rohtash Verma said they had sent a request for the budget to the higher authorities. "We are hopeful it will be released within a couple of days," said Verma. He said the schools had been allowed to utilise funds meant for other purpose, which would be repaid once the payments for mid-day meals were received.

Not paid for 3 months

• The payments for mid-day meals have not been released since August
• The cooks, who're paid Rs 7,000 a month, are awaiting October salary
• Teachers temporarily diverting school funds meant for other purpose

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