Good news for Akshara Dasoha beneficiaries

Students to get more food, cooks to get more wages

 The well appreciated and fruitful project of the State government has seen a lot more developments in this academic year.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Block Education Officer Manjula K L said that quantity of the food given to children has been increased for the year 2010-2011 keeping in mind the requirement of the children. “The amount of Dal given to primary school children in the year 2009-2010 was 20 gram, oil and salt were 3 gram and 2 grams respectively. But this year, a marginal increase in the allocation of food items to the students of 6th and 7th standard has been materialised. The students of 6th and 7th std will get 30 grams of Dal, 7.5 grams of oil and 4 grams of salt,” she said.

Accordingly the gross expenditure on each child has also been amplified this year. The expense made on each student of primary school was Rs 2.37 whereas on high school student, it was Rs 3.71. This year, the students of 6th and 7th std are classified separately and a different amount has been fixed for them. “The amount that would be spent on each child will vary at three levels, that is, from 1st standard to 5th, 6th to 7th and a separate amount for high school children. An amount of Rs 2.50 will be spent on the children from 1st to 5th std, Rs 3.75 will be spent on the students from 6th and 7th std and Rs 5.15 will be spent on high school students,” she said.

Hike in cook wages

This apart, the wages fixed for the cooks has also been increased to a larger amount. The earlier wage scales fixed for different level of cooks has been cancelled and a single set of amount is fixed for all the cooks except the main cook.

Further, Manjula said that the monthly wages ranged from Rs 400 (to the 4th grade cook) to Rs 800 (to the main cook) earlier. But now an amount of Rs 1,000 will be given to all the cooks irrespective of their grades, except the main cook, who will recieve Rs 1,100 per month.

With the intention of improving the cooking environment, the government has also sanctioned money for the construction of store rooms and kitchen sheds in the schools. As many as 148 high schools in the district have been sanctioned with a sum of Rs 1,20,000 each for the construction purpose and in most of the schools, constructions has already begun, she informed.

As far as providing complete boiled rice to the students of the district is concerned, the BEO said that they expect Shimoga godown to supply them with enough amount of boiled rice for Dakshina Kannada schools as per the demand of the children. However, there is no guarantee that they would receive only boiled rice, so there is no option but to manage by using both white and boiled rice, she said.