Dimapur, Feb. 19 (EMN): The Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) has demanded clarifications from the education authorities concerning a number of issues related to implementation of the mid-day meal scheme.
The group issued a press release informing that it had convened a meeting “in the wake of the principal secretary School Education, Shanavas C asking evidence for nexus of government officials and politicians in the mid-day meal scam which is not a new issue in public domain.”
The NPRAAF said it is “amused” at the ‘effort’ of Shanavas C “to defend the contractor Mr RN Sharma misdeeds which is indefensible however it was well tried.”
Nonetheless, the group appreciated the official for clarifying that the annual sanction of food grains from the Center is 4076.590 metric ton ‘which is more than the figures given by the NPRAAF of 4, 000 metric ton’ and is therefore in excess to the actual requirement.
‘If so, why did the department fail to regularly implement the mid-day meal scheme in the schools,’ the union asked.
Secondly, the press release stated, “If as claimed by Shanavas C if the unspent balance of food grain are subsequently adjusted during the next allocation as normal practice, why year after year adjustment over adjustment is made, hoodwinking the center. Is it that the department shows inflated number of students to Delhi to receive even more food grain to make further adjustment the next year?”
‘It is absolutely shocking that when the actual requirement of the school children as per entitlement is 100 gm per child per day in primary, and 150 gm per child per day in upper primary, it is absolutely scandalous to demand and receive 10 lakh kg or 80,000 eighty thousand bags (50 kg bag) of food grain from the government of India to feed even the poor children in schools regularly except on holidays as per the rule of government of India.’
Further to the claims that the total number of beneficiaries was 1,57,510 (1,19,144 in primary and 38, 366 in upper primary), the NPRAAF clarified that a letter written to the authorities dealing with the mid-day meal scheme on April 29 2016 by the ministry of Human Resource Development was handed over by the carriage contractor RN Sharma himself to NPRAAF officials.
On the overleaf page, the organisation stated, the letter for allocation of food grain state wise was imprinted.
“The state received more or less the same amount of food grains in the next two quarter which totals up to over 5000 MT which means the department received about 12,5000 kg of rice or 1 lakh bag of rice (in 50 kg bag) or more in the past every year.”
The forum expressed displeasure that in spite of unaccounted food grain received by the state from the government of India, the mid-day meal scheme could not be efficiently implemented. Therefore, blaming NCLP or the NGOs in the whole fiasco is “totally unjustified,” the NPRAAF stated.
Further, the NPRAAF stated that the contractor informed the forum that the exact enrolment of student was 1,06,298 as against the figures shown in the official documents submitted to Delhi.
The NPRAAF warned that it is also ‘ready to make even more sensitive disclosure as confessed by the contractor in the court of law as desired by Mr Shanavas C as to how much rupees per Qtl (sic) is paid to various organisation in more detail as and when the matter comes before the law as promised by NPRAAF at the earliest.’ “The midday meal scam is an open secret. Therefore, it is intriguing whether the young IAS officer was pressured by some higher ups to issue such unqualified press statement,” the forum stated.