Punish Mid-day meal Scamsters

The Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme is a huge scam being carried out by many Head Masters (HMs) and School Management Committees (SMCs) of government schools in Assam. Around Rs 25 per student is sanctioned with ‘fixed students’ count i.e. fund is given for full strength of school, say 300 students, even if only 150 or 200 students regularly attend school. Besides, many schools, if not all, serve MDMs for only 10 to 15 working days in a month. So, per day around Rs 10,000 to 15,000 can be easily siphoned off. HMs/SMCs can make additional money by purchasing poor quality rice, pulses, vegetables etc. In many schools, if not all, eggs are served only 3 to 6 days in a month. Plus, MDM cooks get only Rs 1000/- per month. Corruption is also there in NGO-supplied MDMs. The State government must therefore take exemplary measures to ensure high quality MDMs for little learners in government schools across Assam. The entire brouhaha over ‘poor quality MDMs’ must be investigated properly so as to know whether the allegations are true or false or a big conspiracy by HMs/SMCs to demonize NGOs supplying MDMs, so that their lucrative, in-house scam continues for good. The bottomline is that the State government along with eminent civil society members plus stakeholders must work in tandem to eradicate the cancer of corruption from the schools. Severe punishment must be meted out to all those involved in feeding innocent schoolkids slow poison in the name of serving them “healthy and nutritious” meals.

Sourabh Jyoti Sharma,

Mirza.