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| SC’s Mid-day meal recommendations; Ex- Chief Secretary accepts, secretaries reject | | Iss Hamam Mein Sab Nangay Hain | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Apr 22: If the manner in which Mid-day meal scheme is being implemented across the state is any indication, then Babus in Jammu and Kashmir are not far behind in making fake promises and pledges. The only difference, politicians hoodwink commoners while Babus delude all.
In the present, those who have been hoodwinked are the Commissioners of the country’s highest legal body supreme court of India. And those who have led these commissioners astray are secretaries of various departments and their head, Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. Supreme Court appointed these commissioners vide an interim order dated May 8, 2002 for the purpose of monitoring of the implementation of this Court's orders as well as the monitoring and reporting implementation by state government’s including Jammu and Kashmir of the various welfare measures and schemes.
These commissioners are empowered to enquire about any violations of these orders and to demand redressal, with the full authority of the Supreme Court. With these powers in hand, Special Commissioner Harsh Mander had met former Chief Secretary S.S.Kapur on October 20, 2009 and raised serious observations over the implementation of Mid-day meal scheme.
Kapur had issued on spot directions to then Education Secretaries for rectifying the wrongs which the special commissioner had pointed out. Besides, he had also pledged to introduce reforms recommended for making implementation of Mid-day meal scheme more transparent. Kapur had accepted that the scheme was not being implemented properly and that there was no mechanism in place to ensure that funds meant for the scheme are not siphoned off or misused.
Early Times is in possession of a copy of the minutes of that meeting which was held in Civil Secretariat (CS) Srinagar. These minutes and the present position as ascertained from the sources in the education department affirm that Chief Secretary’s words and his directions to the then Education and CAPD Secretaries had both failed to the later. They had like professional politicians nodded in affirmation and then done nothing to implement SC commissioner’s recommendations.
Minutes of the meeting unveil that the SC special commissioner had pointed out that while the coverage of the children is 95 percent under MDMS, off take of food grains allocated for same as reported by government is only 59.1 percent. On this discrepancy, the SC commissioner had held out that either the sufficient quantity of the meal is not being served or that the attendance is being fudged.
He had added that state has been able to utilize only 49 percent of the available budget (centre and state) for the cooking costs of meal, which points to the fact that the quality of the meal is greatly compromised. Chief Secretary had agreed to this and calling the matter serious, promised to enquire and ensure that MDM of prescribed standard is supplied on all school days in all eligible schools.
However, query from the education department revealed that no such thing every happened. The promise was merely made in papers. When the SC commissioner pointed towards his field visit to two villages in Baramullah where children had confirmed that the school meals were not being served throughout the year and food grains allocated under MDM were being rationed under PDS, Chief Secretary had directed the then Secretary Education that the MDM has a separate allocation from the Centre and therefore, the grain allocated for the MDM should not be used in the PDS.
Verification revealed that with no test checks around, this practice is going on in several parts of the state. Mander had pointed out that meal was not being given on Fridays and that there were complaints of irregularity or disruption in mid-day meals from many villages. The then Education Secretary had referred to non-availability of FCI godowns for disruptions in the supply.
However, Chief Secretary had directed the then Education and CAPD Secretaries to jointly issue a circular within a month to ensure that foodgrain supplies are regularly available to the schools for the preparation of meals. He had also pledged that to avoid disruptions in the serving of the meal, money would be allocated to the schools in advance in a way that at any given point the school has the required funds for serving the meal for a period of at least three months.
Chief Secretary had also opined that government would open bank accounts in the name of Village Education Committee to increase accountability to the community. When the SC commissioner expressed concern over teachers leaving teaching which is their primary job and organising MDM, thereby affecting education of the students, Chief Secretary had then agreed that the procurement of food items for MDM would be given to the Mahila Mandals and the VECs would take charge of supervision and monitoring.
Again the verification on ground revealed that there is no such mechanism in place. About a third of the schools visited had no drinking water facilities; a third did not provide plates to the students, said the SC commissioner, to which Chief Secretary agreed and pledged that schools with no drinking water facilities will be identified and a time bound action plan to extend the provisions of safe drinking water to these schools would be implemented with the help of PHE department.
The then Education Secretary had even said that the department was exploring option of introducing water purifiers in the schools with the help of PHE department. But there is no such example available across Jammu district. Regarding Zonal Education Officers procuring all the cooking utensils including gas stove, cylinder and containers centrally at the zone level and then supplying it to the schools, SC commissioner had observed that centralized procurements provide opportunity of money being siphoned away and therefore, any such procurement must happen at the school level by the school staff and village education committee.
Chief Secretary had agreed and ordered that such procurement must be decentralized and made transparent, and happen through VECs.
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