Mid-Day-Meal amount hiked
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 20 2018:
The amount provided by the Government for mid-day-meal given to students of Primary and Upper Primary schools has been hiked.
This was conveyed in a letter sent by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the School Education Department on November 15 this year, informed a source.
The State Government has been providing mid-day-meal to 1,70,579 children including 1,32,483 Primary students and 38,096 Upper Primary students.
The daily monetary values of mid-day-meal served to each Primary student and Upper Primary student are Rs 4.13 and Rs 6.18.But these figures have been hiked to Rs 4.35 and Rs 6.51, said the source.
According to the letter sent by the Ministry of Human Resource Development the increment in mid-day-meal amount has come into force with retrospective effect from April 1 this year.
The sum of Rs 4.13 and Rs 6.18 sanctioned by the Government of India could not meet the expense of serving mid-day-meals to Primary and Upper Primary students as food items are costlier in Manipur as compared to other States.
Moreover, an amount of around Rs 13 crore spent in implementing the Mid-Day-Meal scheme in Manipur from September this year to the current month has not been released yet even though the State Government released Rs 6 crore recently, added the source.