Checking malpractices in Mid-Day Meal Scheme ; Defaulting Heads of institutions under scanner
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 15 2015 : Authorities have started taking disciplinary actions against Headmasters/Headmistresses who have been found to be anomalous while offering meals to school students under the Government of India's flagship programme of Mid-Day-Meal.

There have been reports about sending lists of additional number of students who are non-existent and claims of offering food to students while no meal has been offered.

To plug in all sorts of loopholes and discrepancies, several teams have been constituted and they have started visiting schools unannounced, informed an official source.

There have been allegedly concrete reports about Headmasters/Headmistresses and teachers manipulating the scheme for their personal benefits.

Acting on these reports, authorities decided to send official teams on surprise visits to schools randomly so as to fix accountability on the wrongdoers.

So far, the official teams have visited around 50 schools of the valley districts unannounced.

Detailed information of each school such as the total number of students, the quantity of rice and other food items provided to them, amounts sanctioned to the schools under Mid-Day-Meal scheme would be collected during the surprise visits.

After visiting all the Government schools located in the valley and the hill districts without giving any prior information, the exact number of students who are actually enjoying the benefits of the scheme would be worked out and the same figure would be uploaded on relevant websites.

In case, any school cannot give clear expenditure statements, the amount found missing or unaccounted would be recovered from the Headmasters/Headmistresses concerned.

Information given by school authorities about the number of students and whether they are given regular mid-day meals or not would be cross checked with people of the respective localities, informed the official.

If any school is found denying mid-day meal to students without any valid reason and if any discrepancies are detected, necessary action would be initiated against the Headmasters/Headmistresses concerned.

Already, Headmasters/Headmistresses of two schools located within Imphal East district have been suspended after serious lapses were detected by official teams during their surprise visits.

The suspended Headmasters/Headmistresses of Top Makha Upper Primary School and Lamphel High School have already been served show cause notices.

Further actions would follow if they cannot give convincing explanations, said the official.

Plans are also afoot to constitute collective teams of School Education Directorate apart from the official teams already constituted under Mid-Day-Meal scheme.

These collective teams would also go on inspection visits to schools without giving any prior information to school authorities.

The surprise visits would first focus on the valley districts before expanding their operation to the hill districts.

Notably, all students of Government schools not higher than Class VIII are entitled to free mid-day-meal every day with the exception of holidays.

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