CAG: Ministry failed in proper implementation of midday meal

“Neither the ministry nor the state governments have established or even attempted to establish any system for measuring a direct relationship between the increase in attendance and the MDM scheme, despite the scheme delineating increase in attendance as a specific objective in guideline up to 2004,” the report says.

“Though the scheme has been operational for more than 12 years and involved outlays reaching Rs 5234.27 crore in 2006-07, the ministry had not established any system to assess the outcome of the scheme in terms of well-defined parameters,” the CAG’s performance audit reads. The report covered the implementation of the scheme across the country from 2002-03 to 2006-07.

The programme is run in all states and union territories under which food is provided free of cost to nearly 14 crore children at primary and upper primary levels everyday.

The report says the implementation of the scheme has been marred by lack of proper monitoring, leading to leakages and states submitting inflated transportation costs. Even though the scheme is aimed at increasing the nutrition level of children in schools, the ministry does not have any information on the nutrition status of children covered under the scheme. The steering and monitoring committee, set up to review the impact of the scheme at national and state levels, did not meet regularly.

In its recommendations, the report has said the ministry/states should establish a ‘reliable system of data capture of actual enrolment, attendance and retention from schools and its consolidation at different levels in all states to analyse the impact of the scheme on these parameters’. It recommends that the ministry should establish a system to ascertain the improvement in nutritional levels of children.