150 Kgs of rice a year for mid-day meal scheme !
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 01 2011:
Perhaps this is the proverbial case of facts being stranger than fiction.
Kaiphundai village under Tousem sub-division in Tamenglong district received just 150 Kgs of rice for Mid-Day Meal scheme for one whole year.
On account of cruel joke played on them, students of the lone UJB School have been literally left out from the ambit of the noble scheme launched by the Government of India.
Incidentally, Kaiphundai village is exclusively inhabited by Zeliangrongs and has a total population of around 500 .
According to the president of the UJB School's students union Duandi Panmei, the school has around 70 students and it has received just 150 Kgs of rice so far this year.
After the building of the school collapsed, the school is being run in three rooms constructed by Assam Rifles under their MCA programme.
Moreover, the students have not been given their text books and school uniform.
Even chalks are not provided, Panmei said.
A high-ranking official of the Education (Schools) Department said that Mid-Day meal rice are lifted from FCI by concerned Deputy Commissioners.
The role of the department is limited to depositing money in the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department.
The official maintained that the department always deposited in time.
Even as the Kaiphundai UJB School has two Anganwadi centres, whatever items entitled to Anganwadi centres never reached the two centres, said Kaiphundai Women Union president Tabitha Gangmei.
She further decried that electricity was of no use in the village as power was supplied to the village only after 9 pm when all the people have gone to sleep.