Neha Walia
Amritsar, 02 January
The Punjab government has revised the mid-day meal chart for winter to include seasonal dishes including kheer and ghee halwa. In this regard, the education department has issued instructions to all government schools through a letter.
The revised chart will be introduced after the winter vacation from January 8 to January 31. This meal plan will include seasonal nutritious food as well as traditional diet for students. Accordingly every Tuesday kheer, Thursday ghee halwa and Friday the seasonal fruit kinnu or orange will be served.
It is worth noting that the seasonal fruit was added last year. Mid-day meal is provided to 19,000 school students up to class 8 in the state. The department has increased the cost of mid-day meal per child in primary schools from Rs 5.45 to Rs 6.19 per child and for upper primary classes from Rs 8.17 to Rs 9.29 per child.
Budget problems at the grassroots level
The new mid-day meal scheme orders have been issued, the schools in charge of the mid-day meal have found it difficult to implement it within the given budget and cost.
In this regard, Rajinder Kaur, mid-day meal in charge at a school in Sohian Kalan, Amritsar, said that earlier we were serving kheer to the students at every time, this affects the school’s food budget. Given the cost of cooking a meal per child, serving ghee halwa and kheer can further strain the budget.
He said that ghee is being sold in the market at Rs 700 to 900 per kg, seasonal vegetables at Rs 40-70 per kg and ghee at Rs 90 per kg. The price of milk is also increasing day by day. We need to see how much time we can give to this new mid-day meal list. Rajinder Kaur said that her school gives mid-day to 160 children daily, in which seasonal fruits are served, but the school is somehow bearing the cost of these seasonal fruits.
Seasonal fruits were added last year
Earlier last year, seasonal fruits were included under the mid-day meal scheme. But the plan did not last long due to procurement and cost challenges. Jeet Kaur, another mid-day meal in-charge of a government school in Khilchian, said that the price of seasonal vegetables including onion, tomato is very high in the market, due to which the mid-day meal budget of the school is increasing. Buying oil for curry and talka dishes will further strain the budget. An average of 130 to 150 students are given mid-day meal in schools here. With so much expenditure it seems challenging to bear ghee and other expenses.
Mid-day meal cook and helper on demand for salary increase
Mid-day meal cooks and helpers are also demanding a pay hike. Mid-day workers in the state have staged several protests in the past six months, demanding a hike from Rs 3,000 per month to Rs 7,000 per month.
