Shaken up by the recent mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar which claimed lives of 23 students, the Centre has called Education Ministers of five States, including Bihar’s PK Shahi, on Wednesday, to deliberate upon improving the standards of implementation of the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) across the country.
In the wake reports of improper implementation of MDMS, HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju has convened a consultative meeting of the Education Ministers, secretaries of few Ministries directly or indirectly involved in the scheme and social activists. The consultative meeting comes a week after the HRD school education secretary held a video-conferencing of all the State/UTs Education Department to review the MDMS within their territories.
A countrywide toll free Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) telephone system for suggestions, grievances and inquiry about MDMS besides effectiveness, quality, safety and hygiene concerns will be discussed. MDMS covers about 12 crore children across the country. Officials said States and departments will be given strict instructions to adhere to the guidelines drawn up to ensure safety of the food served as part of the scheme. Among the HRD Ministry directions is one calling for teachers and a member of the school management committee to taste the food before it is served to the children.
Besides Education Ministers of AP, Kerala, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, the secretaries of HRD, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development Ministries and related departments will be present in the meeting. Experts and activists like NC Saxena, Biraj Patnaik, Haleem Khan, Firoza Mehta and Urmi Sircar have been invited to give and share their opinions to implement the world’s largest feeding programme effectively without any complaints.
The HRD Ministry has engaged the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to randomly test samples of food served to check its quality and nutritional contents. “The outcome of the reports from the tests would have a bearing on the funds released to the states. Schools would be randomly selected for sample collection. Apart from the kitchen where the food is cooked, samples would also be collected from the food which is finally served to the students,” they said.