Report on Mid-day Meal Scheme: 63 per cent schools still use firewood for cooking

As per the report, of the total 86,707 schools covered under MDMS in the state, around 84,523 schools have in-house kitchens. Of this, only 31,546 (37 per cent) schools use LPG, it added.

“The state government must take action to get this practice discontinued and encourage school kitchens to use LPG for cooking mid-day meals,” the report stated.

The large-scale use of firewood by schools has also been criticised by environmentalists who said the method leads to air pollution, it added.

Officials of the state education department claimed they have already initiated the process of replacing the age-old method, of using firewood for cooking, with LPG.

Following a review of the scheme in February 2017, MHRD has also pointed out poor coverage of the scheme in five districts of Maharashtra.

The financial capital of the state — Mumbai — for the fourth consecutive year, has topped the list of poor performing districts for MDMS, the report had pointed out.

The districts, which reportedly have the lowest coverage of children under MDMS include, Mumbai (64 per cent), Hingoli (66 per cent), Washim (68 per cent), Raigad (68 per cent), Jalna (68 per cent), Latur (71 per cent), in both primary and upper primary schools.

The MHRD officials, however, lauded the state government for developing a daily MDMS monitoring system.

Last year, officials of the Union ministry had questioned the state on why as many as 207 schools in Mumbai have stopped serving mid-day meals.

“We found out that many parents had complained about the quality of food being served in these schools, hence they preferred giving home-cooked food to their wards,” said Nand Kumar, principal secretary of the state school education department.

The low standard and

quality of food, served under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, was

also pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) 2015 report.

The report had revealed that around 97 per cent of the samples of the food being served under the scheme in Mumbai schools over the past five years, failed to meet the standards.

On an average, 66 per cent of the 269 selected schools did not provide cooked meals on all school days between 2010 and 2015, the CAG report, on general and social sector for the year ended March 2015, had pointed out.

This report was tabled during the ongoing monsoon session of Maharashtra Legislature.

The state government’s data of the number of schools and students covered under the Mid-day Meal Scheme from 2014 -15 to 2017-18 reveals that the numbers have dropped.

According to the data, in academic year 2014-15, 97,62,850 students were covered under MDMS in 86,177 schools, in 2015-16 93,94,423 students were covered in 86,660 schools and in 2016-17 95,43,137 students were covered in 86,867 schools.

The state government’s statistic for the academic year 2017-18 states that as many as 92,19,397 students are covered in 86,707 schools. The number of beneficiaries under the MDMS in the state showed a decline.A school education department official said: “There are different reasons for poor performance in different districts for MDMS. Like drought-affected areas had students not attending schools due to shortage of water. Many schools in some of the districts complained of not receiving advance money towards the cooking cost.”

The officials added that there was a delay, in disbursing advance for cooking cost, of more than a month in Sangli, Satara, Sholapur and Pune. The delay was over three to four months in areas of Gondia, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Wardha and Nagpur. Besides, there were also issues of irregular payment of remuneration.