Mumbai: The BMC has floated a Rs 121 crore proposal to buy flavoured milk for civic schools. To prevent any delays, the BMC plans to buy the milk directly from dairies rather than going through dealers in the market. The proposal is likely to be placed before the standing committee, which is scheduled to meet early this week.

With some States defaulting on payment of their share of funds for providing meals to children in government schools, adversely affecting the implementation of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the Centre has now asked all States to consider adopting Andhra Pradesh's model ‘Green Channel Scheme.' The A.P. model makes funds available throughout the year.

A sum of Rs. 111 crore 68 lakh 99 thousand has been released as the fourth (last) instalment for arrangements for cooking food under Mid-day Meal Scheme in primary and middle schools of the state. These funds have been allocated for the year 2011-12 for Mid-Day Meal Scheme’s implementation in primary and middle schools situated in non-tribal rural and urban areas and tribal rural and urban areas.

Allocation for a child in anganwadi in State is Rs. 4 a day

With food prices going northward, a cup of coffee in Bangalore, on an average, costs Rs. 10 today. In such a situation, how well can a child in an anganwadi in Karnataka be fed on an allocation of Rs. 4 per day?

Chandigarh: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has sanctioned Rs 54 crore grant to Chandigarh Unit of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for academic session 2012-13. Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan had put across a budget proposal of Rs 72 crore.

This year, two new schools will be set up under SSA in Sector 48 and 49. Both the schools will be Government Model High Schools (upto Class X).

A sum of Rs 5.12 crore has been set aside for expenses incurred on mid-day meals.

Government schools in Punjab have reportedly not received any money for midday meals for the last several months prompting some of them to stop serving food to children under the scheme. In a few schools, teachers have been spending from their own pockets or buying rations on credit to feed the children. The education department has attributed the delay in payment to non-release of funds by the finance department.

DHENKANAL: The bird flu panic has made its way to the mid-day meal scheme too. Hundreds of students of various primary schools in Dhenkanal district have refused to take eggs in their noon meal. As many as 1,700 schools with 1.10 lakh children come under the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan in eight blocks of the district. Since a week, teachers have stopped giving eggs under the MDM following the students’ and their parents’ fear of contracting the flu. The block resource coordinators (BRCs) too have asked the schools to stop distribution of eggs.

Patiala: Irked over the delay in release of payments for the mid-day meal schemes, many government schools in the district have closed the scheme, while others are on the verge of closing the scheme due to shortage of funds. Sources in the Education Department said that many schools in Samana block 1 and 2 and Bhadson had written letters to the DEO stating, "They have closed the scheme as they have not received payment worth thousands of rupees and could not shell out any more money from their pockets for the scheme."

In the land of sops, the latest is mango milkshake. The Tamil Nadu government is considering a plan to provide mango milkshake to mid-day meal centres, with the state milk cooperative, Aavin, directed to examine the proposal.

A simple call on the cell phone of the school teacher across the 1.53 lakh primary schools in Uttar Pradesh is helping monitor the state’s mid-day meal programme. This innovative monitoring practice developed by the state’s Mid-Day Meal Authority (MDMA) has won the nBillionth Award South Asia 2011. It will now be put to use to monitor a range of other public welfare schemes in the state as well.