Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Government of India has decided to increase the material cost for midday meals under the PM POSHAN Scheme with effect from December 1, 2024.
This was conveyed to the state government by the Ministry of Education Department of School Education & Literacy, PM POSHAN Division.
The decision regarding the revision of material cost of midday meals was conveyed in a letter to the Principal Secretaries/Secretaries (Education)/Nodal Department of all the States and UTs for the PM POSHAN Scheme.
The Ministry of Education has decided to increase the material cost to Rs 6.19 for Bal Vatika and Primary and Rs 9.29 for upper primary classes under the PM POSHAN Scheme from December 1, 2024. The material cost will be shared between the centre and the states as per the existing funding pattern of 90:10 for the states of the North Eastern Region (NER). The cost of Rs 6.19 for Bal Vatika and Primary will be shared between the Centre and states; for example, the Centre will pay its share of Rs 5.57, and the Assam government shall have to bear Rs 0.62. For upper primary classes, the Centre will pay Rs 8.36, and Assam's share will be Rs 0.93, out of the total of Rs 9.29 per student.
The cooking cost of midday meals in Assam from October 2022 onwards is calculated at Rs 5.45 per child for primary schools and nearly Rs 8.17 for upper primary schools. During 2023-24, the PM Poshan scheme covered 44,340 schools in the state. The total number of students was 40,87,368, but an average of 36,23,212 (88.64%) students were covered by the midday meal scheme.
Earlier, the state Department of School Education issued a direction that all the recorded students in schools should give attendance through the Shiksha Setu App only, and districts should release food grains and cooking costs as per the attendance of students.
It was held that many students and class teachers don't give daily attendance in the app, even though the students are present. Due to this, there is a difference in the number of students present in schools getting midday meals under PM POSHAN, the department pointed out.
This has created problems in the disbursement of appropriate amounts of funds for food grains and cooking costs as per the attendance of students.
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