The Union Government has expressed concern over the Odisha Government’s failure to send detailed data as to how many children are receiving the benefits of the midday meal (MDM) scheme in the schools in the State.
While the Department of School Education and literacy (DoSEl) in the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) is providing all support for running the scheme, nearly 78 per cent schools in the State are not providing the daily data about the beneficiaries.
As the Automated Monitoring System has been started in the State under the MDM, all the schools are needed to upload detailed data on beneficiaries on daily basis, said sources.
Out of 62,784 schools in the State running MDM, only 2,253 schools are sending daily data on the children consuming MDM. Central Portal receives daily data and these are reviewed regularly. However, Odisha is failing to provide such data.
Under MDM out of total 69,152 kitchens sanctioned for the State, only 37,544 have been constructed and 31, 608 kitchens are in progress. These are to be completed in a time bound manner and needed to run properly.
lPG is used in 14,737 kitchens and in rest 48,508 schools the kitchens are using firewood. DoSEl has urged to make it 100 per cent lPG connection as the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is giving priority for providing lPG connection for school kitchens.
Similarly, as the MHRD has sanctioned 173 girls’ hostels under Rashtriya Madhyamik Sikshya Abhiyan (RMSA) long back, however, not a single girl’s hostel has been made functional even in the rented building.
State Government sources said that 117 hostels are in progress, while construction of 52 hostels is yet to begin. DoSEl has expressed concern over the matter, admit official sources.
DoSEl has approved 864 Headmaster posts and 531 Headmaster posts are still not filled up, making at least 61 per cent lying vacant.
In case of Subject Teachers as against 5,720 posts approved in the previous years, 3,751 posts are lying vacant, which is 65 per cent of the approved posts.
Aadhaar coverage in the age band of 5-18 years is needed to be 100 percent, however, in Odisha it is 65.8 per cent. The State Government has been repeatedly urged by the Centre to collect child wise data with their Aadhaar or Unique Identity (UID) in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Portal.
In this backdrop, the DoSEl has asked the State Government to collect and upload data by January 31, 2017, said the sources.