Urban students 'deprived' of mid-day meal

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Sept. 19: The Malda district inspector of schools, primary education, Mr KN Sinha, today said he was not aware why the mid-day meal project had been suspended in the urban areas of the district. Though the primary students from urban areas are allegedly deprived of the mid-day meal facility, the district administration is trying hard to bring back at least 80 percent dropouts out of 1800 ones in English Bazaar municipal area by luring them with the mid-day meal offer. Speaking to The Statesman over telephone, the DI, Mr Sinha, said: "I do not know anything about mid-day meal project in urban areas. The sub-inspectors responsible for Urban I and II circle offices will be able to explain the cause behind the suspension of the mid-day meal project in the urban areas. The block office and municipality allot rice to the schools. They do not send the list of allotments to my office."The additional district magistrate of Malda, Mr PC Shit, said: "The mid-day meal project has not been implemented properly in urban areas owing to technical problem. We will discuss the issue with the officials concerned."The English Bazaar civic body chief, Mr Narendranath Tiwari, said: "The mid-day meal project has been started partly in some wards. Councillors took the initiative despite lack of proper infrastructure." Mr Tiwari claimed that the quantity of rice was not adequate and the quality was poor. "In many places, there are no infrastructure to provide cooked food to the students under the mid-day meal project. The allotment of funds is not satisfactory to run the project," Mr Tiawri, added. It may be recalled that at a time when the government instructed the school authorities to provide cooked food, it was detected that some primary schools in Malda are still distributing rice to the students to avoid burden of cooked food distribution. In Malda which is declared as backward district the government has planned to implement the mid-day meal project up to upper primary level, including high schools The proposal, however, is yet to be implemented.