Central Govt's missive to State for effective scheme implementation
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 06 2011:
To verify the number of children who actually receive a meal under the mid-day meal scheme, the Centre has proposed to the State Government to adopt the Interactive Voice Response System.
Speaking to The Sangai Express an official source said that once this system is in place, then it would be fairly easy to work out how many children actually are actually fed lunch under the mid-day meal scheme in a single day.
The proposal of the Centre comes in the face of the piling reports that there are too many loopholes in the scheme to cover all children.
The new system mooted by the Centre has been taken up successfully in a good number of other States, said the source and added that the North East States including Manipur are yet to implement it.
All the North East States may simultaneously put the system in place.
Under the system a mobile number will be given to each centre where the mid day meal scheme has been implemented and with the help of the number the Government will be able to work out exactly how many children have been fed lunch on a single day.
In Manipur the estimated cost of introducing the new system has been pegged at Rs 20 lakhs.
After this the running cost of the system will be put at Rs 4 lakh each year.
Though the exact time has not been decided yet, there is a general discussion doing the round to introduce the said system simultaneously in all the North East States.
Towards this end a meeting of all the North East States will be held at Agartala.