Rice for mid day meal gone awry
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 13, 2011:
The monthly quota of rice which are to be made available to the primary and upper primary schools of Imphal East district under the mid day meal scheme taken up under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India has gone awry.
According to a reliable source, the actual amount of rice which was to be distributed to upper and lower primary schools under Imphal East district for the month of September 2010, have been reduced to half the amount.
According to the source, the Directorate of Education (S) had issued an order on July 22, 2010 for distribution of rice under the mid-day meal scheme to the students of all the upper and lower primary schools of Imphal East for 220 days for the academic session 2010-11.There is also said to be a proposal of the state government to distribute rice under the scheme for 251 days per academic session.
According to the order of the Directorate of Education (S), mid day meal for 18 days in April, 20 days in May, 12 days in June, 20 days in July, 20 days in August, 20 days in September, 18 days in October, 15 days in November, 17 days for December 2010 and 20 days for the month of January 2011 should be made available to the students.
But rice for only 10 days were found to have been distributed as against the stipulated 20 days for the month of September, 2010.The whole quantity of rice for the remaining 10 days were misused.
Over and above this, the little amount of rice distributed were found to have been reduced to a considerable level, reports the source.
A teacher under ZEO zone II, on condition of anonymity, disclosed that even though the ZEO of zone II is fully aware of the fact that a huge quantity of rice meant for the students of upper and lower primary schools in Imphal East have been misused by a handful of persons, he is keeping quiet and no actions have been taken against the perpetrators.
The Directorate of Education (S) is also remaining silent on the issue.
Meanwhile, around 60% of Schools in Imphal East district are in a pathetic condition.
Majority of the teachers in these schools seldom come to the school.
The Urup High School in Keirao constituency was recently upgraded to a high school owing to the increase in the number of students in the school.
But since the teachers hardly come to the school and the existing few teachers have also been transferred by the ZEO on unreasonable grounds, no students are left in the school at the end of the current academic session.