BHUBANESWAR, 28 JULY: Chief minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, has exhorted the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to revise upwards the fund allocation per child for the mid-day meal programme, against the backdrop of the increase in prices of essential commodities like dal.
“The allocation was fixed in 2006, when the price of Arhar dal was around Rs 32 per kg. Today, the price of the same dal is above Rs 70 per kg. Rises in the price of such an essential component of the meal have severely impacted the programme,” Mr Patnaik noted in his letter.
“An immediate decision in the matter will go a long way towards removing a major bottleneck of the programme,” he pointed out.
Maintaining that the mid-day meal programme in schools is of national importance, and even more important for the poorer regions of the country, where the mid-day meal is a major meal for the students, Mr. Patnaik asserted that the meal must be in adequate quantity and without interruption.
However, the per-child cost norm under the programme is far too meagre at a time when
the prices of essential commodities have increased manifold in the recent months,
he rued, calling for some immediate steps to address the issue.