Watchdog panels to sample midday meals,collect students’ feedback

Giving details,UPMDMA Additional Director Santosh Rai said,“Since it is the beginning of the session,we want the districts to gear up and also remove all hurdles at the earliest. The monitoring committees will be doing spot inspections,check stocks and also take personal interviews of children,apart from sampling the cooked food themselves.”

The teams will consist of block-level officials from the panchayati raj,education and revenue departments. Rai added,“Each block will have two teams that will conduct inspections. And children’s testimonies are an important part of the report. They have all been given a format on which the reports will be based. Once we get the reports,we will take appropriate action in the districts,” said Rai.

He added that the committees will be conducting regular inspections. “We have not specified any dates but the monitoring will be a regular affair to ensure effective implementation of the scheme,” said Rai.

In Uttar Pradesh,the Midday meal programme covers over 1.5 lakh children from primary,upper primary schools,National Child Labour Programme Schools and even Madarsas recognised by the state government.

The scheme,serving cooked meal to children five days a week,has often been under scanner for poor quality of food or non-availability of grains in the stocks of the schools.