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Centre pulls up K’taka for incomplete school kitchens

Last Updated 30 June 2019, 09:00 IST

The Ramesh Pokhriyal-led HRD ministry has set September 2019 as the deadline for Karnataka to complete all works related to kitchen-cum-stores under the Midday Meal (MDM) scheme, including the construction of structures languishing for the last 13 years.

The kitchen-cum-stores or sheds are key structures that help provide safe storage of food, hygienic cooking and hand washing. These structures assume significance as the number of children falling sick after consuming meals or getting hurt while eating touched 438 last year, the highest in four years.

Since 2006, out of the 40,477 kitchen-cum-stores sanctioned, the government has completed constructing 38,985 structures, according to data. While the construction of 1,422 sheds is yet to start, the government has identified 18,053 of them that need repair.

Most of the 1,422 government schools where construction of kitchen-cum-sheds is yet to start are located in the backward districts of Kalaburagi and Yadgir. These were sanctioned way back in 2006.

“Construction of kitchen-cum-stores is delayed due to some land disputes at the school level, as well as a scarcity of sand,” the government told the HRD ministry during a recent yearly review meeting.

“Sand (shortage) is a common issue for all departments,” Commissioner for Public Instruction P C Jaffer, who is under transfer, told DH. Authorities are pushing contractors to expedite the construction, he added.

Besides pushing Karnataka on the construction of the kitchen sheds, the HRD ministry has also expressed concern over the state’s “underperformance” in the School Health Programme, which includes a health checkup for kids under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, weekly iron & folic acid supplementation and administering deworming tablets.

For instance, out of 46.32 lakh, children enrolled between Classes 1 and 8 last year, a whopping 21.77 lakh children missed the health checkup, iron & folic acid supplementation and deworming tablets.

Despite some of these shortcomings, Karnataka remains a bellwether state with 97% schoolchildren covered under the MDM scheme against the national average of 76%. The Centre has consistently praised the state for the Ksheera Bhagya scheme of providing 150 ml of milk to schoolchildren five days a week, for kitchen gardens that have been set up in scores of schools among other initiatives.

Also, Karnataka has informed the HRD ministry that it proposes to organise a cooking competition across all 54,000 schools covered under the MDM scheme.

“Nutritionists will examine the recipes to ensure compliance with nutrition standards. Judges will also include children because they are the ones for whom the meal is being cooked,” the government has told the Centre.

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(Published 29 June 2019, 17:28 IST)

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