Half of Nalgonda students go without lunch

NALGONDA: Only half of the total 3,17,234 children studying in government schools in Nalgonda district are being benefited by the mid-day meal scheme.The statement was made by district collector N Mukteswara Rao during a meeting with mandal education officers here on Thursday.The scheme, which started in the 1960s, involves provision of lunch free of cost to school children on all working days.The objectives of the programme are to protect children from classroom hunger, increase school enrolment and attendance, improve socialisation among children belonging to all castes, address malnutrition and social empowerment through provision of employment to women.He asked the MEOs to find the reasons behind the poor implementation of the scheme and take steps to ensure that more children enjoyed the benefits of it.He asked the MEOs to appoint new agents, if necessary, for preparing mid-day meals after adopting resolution in grama sabhas.Stating that majority of the schools were not submitting expenditure of mid-day meal scheme, he asked the MEOs to look into it. He directed them to review implementation of the scheme every week and send the feedback to the district education officer.He asked the MEOs to streamline the scheme at mandal-level.He instructed the education officials to organise training camps for managements and students of private schools and motivate them to protect environment and greenery.DRDA project director Rajeswar Reddy, DEO Madan Mohan, AO Suryanarayana, deputy educational officers Prasad, Ramesh and others were present.