West Bengal over-reported midday meals worth more than Rs 100 crore, diverted funds: Centre report

The Indian Express has learnt that these are among the “serious discrepancies” and “major areas of concern” communicated by the Union Ministry of Education to the state government on March 24 along with the observation that the “wrong reporting about the number of meals served and its financial aspect was a matter of great concern”.

On March 30, West Bengal responded to the Centre saying it directed the local project director of the scheme to examine the findings, which were based on a review carried out by the mission during its visit to the state between January 29 and February 7.

The “serious mismatch” in the number of children availing midday meals as reported by the state government to the Centre and the figures maintained in the district-level logbooks is the major thrust of the report prepared by the JRM, led by Prof Anuradha Dutta who heads the department of food and nutrition at the GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology.

The report states, “As per the 1st and 2nd Quarterly Progress Reports (QPRs) submitted to the Government of India by the state government, about 140.25 crore meals have been served under PM Poshan scheme during April to September, 2022. However, as per the QPRs submitted by the districts to the state, the number of meals served is about 124.22 crore.”

It adds that the “over-reporting of serving of over 16 crore meals is a very serious issue” as the “material cost of 16 crore meals translates to over Rs 100 crore”. West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu and School Education Secretary Manish Jain did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comments on the alleged irregularities.

However, officials in the West Bengal department of school education said the JRM report was finalised “without the signature of the state’s representative”. “Our midday meal project director did not sign the report. We have written to the Centre over this. The allegations are also being examined,” the official added.

Another top official of the state said, “The Centre did not respect the spirit of how JRMs should function. Neither was the report signed by our representative, nor was it communicated to him before it was finalised. He should have been given the opportunity to place the state’s version. We have raised the issue with the Centre.”

Meanwhile, the JRM pointed out that as against the claim of the state that over 95 per cent of the enrolled children were availing midday meals on an average basis in 2022, in reality the number hovered between 60 per cent and 85 per cent. Around the time of the JRM’s visit, the average rate of children availing hot cooked meals under the scheme was 52 per cent, it said in its report.

For the year 2022-23, the Project Advisory Board of PM Poshan had granted approval for the scheme to cover 71.95 lakh children in primary classes (1-5), 44 lakh children in upper primary classes (6-8) and 10.38 lakh children in Bal Vatikas or pre-primary schools in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 2,258 crore. Of this, Rs 1,434 crore was to be borne by the Centre and Rs 824 crore by the state.

Under the scheme, most components including cooking cost are split in a 60:40 ratio between the Union government and the states and Union territories with legislatures, and 90:10 with the north-eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The cost of food grains is borne entirely by the Centre. Officially, the scheme covers 12.21 crore students in classes 1-8 across states and UTs.

On January 5, West Bengal Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, alleging that the fund meant for PM Poshan “granted by the Central government has been systematically diverted unethically by the state government on a regular basis to serve their own interests.” Subsequently, the JRM, which is a component of the PM Poshan guidelines, was set up.

The JRM also pointed out that the mechanism for the allocation of food grains “needs to be revisited”, adding that in 70 per cent of the schools visited by the team, “less rice was cooked than the prescribed quantities”. Similar shortfalls were noticed in the case of dal in 60 per cent of schools, oil in 47 per cent of schools, and cooked vegetables in 27 per cent of schools.

“Iron and Folic Acid tablets and deworming medicines were not distributed during 2022 in most of the schools visited by the JRM team… 16.67% of the condiments packets showed that they were beyond the expiry date,” according to the report. In one instance, notes the report, the district magistrate of Birbhum used midday meal funds for compensating victims of a fire under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.