Students studying in the Government schools will be served food under the Midday Meal Scheme under a tin shed in the school campus. For this, the education department had recently released Rs 79.98 crore to the districts for the construction of kitchen cum store sheds and tin shed in schools, said Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) state project joint director in-charge Pravinder Bisht.
It has been observed that in some schools, due to shortage of additional rooms or verandah, students were served food under the scheme in the open field in the campus or in class rooms.
Bisht said that the department had released Rs 36.17 crore in the month of February this year to the districts for construction of 2275 kitchen cum store sheds approved in 2011-12 while Rs 43.81 crore was released in March for 2267 kitchen cum store and tin sheds approved in 2012-13.
From released funds, kitchen cum store shed and tin sheds will be constructed in 46 schools in Almora district, 208 in Bageshwar, 242 in Chamoli, 237 in Champawat, 347 in Dehradun, 393 in Haridwar, 420 in Nainital, 578 in Pauri, 435 in Pithoragarh, 145 in Rudraprayag, 550 in Tehri, 509 in Udham Singh Nagar and 232 in Uttarkashi. To construct the kitchen cum store sheds and tin sheds, Rs 1.98 lakh will be given to government school with 150 students; Rs 2.57 lakh to school with more than 150 students in mountainous parts and Rs 1.72 lakh to school with 150 students while Rs 2.21 lakh will be given to school with more than 150 students in plain parts of the State, he added.
As per report received from the districts, Almora district had already constructed 1055 out of target 1736 kitchen cum store sheds; 392 out of target 754 kitchen cum store sheds were constructed in Bageshwar, 654 out of target 1236 in Chamoli, 726 in Champawat, 723 out of target 1202 in Dehradun, 431 out of target 913 in Haridwar, 885 out of 1318 in Nainital, 1136 out of target 1953 in Pauri, 703 out of total 1424 in Pithoragarh, 333 out of target 727 in Rudraprayag, 1082 out of 1891 in Tehri, 463 out of target 1134 in Udham Singh Nagar and 645 out of target 924 in Uttarkashi.
According to him, the Central Government had sanctioned Rs 79.98 crore for the construction of kitchen-cum store sheds and tin sheds in the primary and upper primary schools in the ratio of 75:25 between Central and State Government in the State.j