The Union government increased the central allocation of cooking cost per child per day under the Mid-day Meal Scheme to Rs 8,100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore.
Considering student’s health and to ensure the supply of food and nutrition to students in the midst of the lockdown imposed to contain the novel coronavirus, the Union government increased the central allocation of cooking cost per child per day under the Mid-day Meal Scheme to Rs 8,100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore.
The Human Resource and Development Minister (MHRD), Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ held a meeting with the state education ministers on April 28 to discuss effective means of imparting education and mid-day meal programme to students during the current coronavirus lockdown.
After conducting the meeting, The HRD minister in one of his tweets informed that the government took the decision to “increase the annual central allocation of cooking cost for procurement of pulses, vegetables, oil, spices and fuel under Mid-Day Meal Scheme is enhanced to Rs 8,100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore”.
This cooking cost allocation’s budget enhancement done by the government reflects an increase of 10.99 per cent.
According to the HRD minister’s twitter handle, “the cooking cost per child per day has been increased from Rs 4.48 to Rs 4.97 for students of Class 1 to Class 5. For students of Class 6 to Class 8, the cooking cost per child per day has been increased from Rs 6.71 to Rs 7.45.” The new rates are effective from April 1.
Earlier, in March, the Union government directed the states and Union Territories to provide mid-day meals or equivalent amounts of food grains or food security allowance to students amid the lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The centrally sponsored Mid-Day Meal aims to increase enrolment, attendance and retention of students in schools. The scheme benefits about 11.59 crore students. The mid-day meal scheme, available for students from elementary classes to class 8 is the world’s largest lunch programme.
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