No meal for students in Kerala

Students having meal at a government school.

KOTTAYAM: In a rare instance Kerala is mentioned under the states having “Critical issues” regarding the implementation of the Mid-day Meal scheme as it was delaying in submitting its MME (Monitoring, Management, Evaluation) report on time.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had allotted funds to the state in January this year to construct 2,450 kitchen-cum-stores, but as per the first Quarterly Progress Report (QPR) of January to March submitted by the state, it had completed only 13 per cent of the work, 20 per cent is in progress and 67 per cent has been queued up to start.

Mohammad Mustafa, an official in the Directorate of Public Distribution for the state said they uploaded the QPR on the MHRD's MDM ( Mid-day Meal) portal, but the data mismatched regarding the number of schools and the kitchen-cum-stores that eventually led to the delay.

Speaking on the phone Mr Bhupinder Kumar, Consultant (Plan Monitoring) from MHRD Said the QPR by the Kerala Government always comes in time but they lag behind in the last two quarters (Apr to June and July to September). The state was allotted funds for the kitchen-cum-stores, but as it was behind schedule of submitting its third QPR (July to September ), we are unsure of its implementation as we mentioned in our report.

Merima Abrahim, Head Mistress of Muttabalam Upper Primary School in Kottayam said: “As directed by the government we construct separate kitchen, and we too have a dining hall for our students.”

“We are abide by the guidelines for the provision of the meals and also we ensure the quality of the food and cleanliness of the kitchen.”