The Union Government has brought in the Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme under the ambit of the National Food Security Act of 2013 and it mandates that the MDM should be cooked compulsorily in all the schools. The Director MDM, Ministry of HRD New Delhi, Gaya Prasad said this while speaking in the two-day workshop of Northern States on MDM here on Thursday. He further said that strict action should be initiated against the head of the school where MDM is not being cooked and termed it violation of Supreme Court ruling on MDM as well.
In the workshop participants from nine states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat and Assam took part. These participants explained the problems they are facing in implementing MDM in their respective states to the Director. The director assured the participants that their problems would be brought into the notice of HRD Ministry.
In the workshop the delegates from the nine states presented their annual progress reports and the annual budget and other issues were discussed. In his address the Additional Chief Secretary S Raju raised the issue of problem of transport in a mountainous state like Uttarakhand. He said that the budget provided for cooking the meal is very less and should be increased.
In the workshop, Secretary Education D Senthil Pandian, Undersecretary MDM, Sachin Arora, Director Primary Education Seema Jaunsari, Director SCERT Kusum Pant, JD MDM, P K Bisht and representatives of all the northern states participated.