Ahead of a two-day strike called by the cooks of Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme on November 16 and 17, the Dhamtari District Education Officer (DEO) has asked all Block Education Officers (BEOs) to continue serving the meals in all the schools on strike days.
The officer said that the Mid-day Meal scheme across the State is carried out by women Self-Help Groups (SHGs). In such circumstances, the managing committee is responsible for serving the meal during school hours.
The Block Education officials have been told to ensure that the managing committee prepares the meal with an alternative staff if the cooks go on strike.
Block Education Officials were also ordered to take action against the cooks and deduct their payment accordingly.
Notably, nearly 34.48 lakh students of more than 45,000 schools are being served freshly cooked nutritious food under Mid-day Meal Programme during the current academic session in the State, officials stated.
This programme is being implemented in 31,376 primary and 13,575 middle schools. As many as 21.14 lakh students of primary schools and 13.34 lakh students of middle schools are availing the Mid-day meal facility.
Under this programme, more than 45,000 organizations, including 43,472 local women self-help groups, 774 social service organizations and 92 Gram Panchayats, have been deployed for preparing nutritious food for children.
The State Government has issued budget allocation of `603.82 crore for implementation of Mid-day meal programme in the current academic session.