Mid day meal to be started anew

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Aug. 11: The district administration has planned to resume the mid day meal project in Manikchak Block which was suspended a few months ago due to lack of monitoring.The entire monitoring system from district to block level was hampered since notification of rural polls, administrative officials said. Recently following a media report the sub-divisional officer Ms Arunima De has urged the concerned authorities to take notice of the situation and decided to resume the project in Manikchak block soon. The entire monitoring system received a huge setback due to preparations for the rural polls that were held recently. Primary investigation revealed that in Manikchak mid day project was suspended for a long period but almost all-primary and upper primary school authorities had spent the money allotted for cooking but stock of rice was intact.The officer-in-charge of mid day meal project, Mr Subho Mukherjee, had stopped allotment of cooking expenses for mid day meal project raising a question: “When the stock of rice meant for mid day meal is intact how did they (school authorities) spend fund allotted for cooking?"Indirectly the officer-in-charge informed the district authorities that schools did not implement mid day meal project properly but spent cash allotted for implementing mid day meal project.It was also found that the stock of rice at present is ‘not fit for human consumption'. But officially it was not ascertained by any authority. The sub-divisional officer Ms Arunima De, also the chairman of the sub divisional monitoring committee for mid day meal project, admitted the problem and said that block authorities would resume the project soon.