Dimapur, July 18 : The Department of School Education today issued a clarification following a RTI disclosure on Mid Day Meal (MDM) that was published in local dailies on July 15 by RTI applicants indicting the department of mismanaging more than Rs 73.00 crore out of the fund meant for the MDM scheme.
Addl Director (HOD) Wonthungo Tsopoe in a press statement said, this clarification is issued in response to the former SKK leaders giving incomplete information and confusing the general public of the state and all the stakeholders.
He clarified that, apart from the fund distributed amongst the SDEOs, which was the only component pointed out as per the RTI disclosure, payment to the FCI for food grains, transportation costs for carriage of food grain from the FCI Depot to the SDEOs and the Management & Monitoring Expenditure (MME), which is 1.8% of the total outlay for MDM in a year, are incurred from the Directorate.
He said, there are also costs for utensils which are centrally procured from the Directorate for distribution to the schools. Expenditure for the other components thus pointed out was not taken into account thereby presuming that funds to the tune of Rs. 73.00 crores had been mismanaged, he asserted.
Tsopoe termed another issue raised of fund getting lost midway between the Finance & the School Education Department as ‘preposterous’ as fund received from the GOI is never handled in the manner as perceived by the RTI applicants.
“There are funds pertaining to MDM that are still with the State Government, however, these funds are released to the Department subject to proposals and request submitted by us and will neither be adjusted nor will it go missing since every penny that is received from the GOI is to be accounted for.”
Tsopoe said, the C&AG report which was tabled in the Assembly has pointed out some anomalies and the same is now under the examination State Assembly PAC and also the PAC of the Parliament; and that the department will not make any comments on issues that involve the PACs till the process is complete.
