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More pulses, vegetable and less oil in mid-day meal from now

The mid-day meal, provided to nearly 12 crore school children everyday, will now be higher on nutrition with more pulses and vegetables and less oil in the meals.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on Thursday approved the revision of the National Programme for Mid Day Meal in Schools.

The CCEA decided to increase quantity of pulses from 25 to 30 gm, vegetables from 65 to 75 gm and to decrease the quantity of oil and fat from 10 to 7.5 grams, an official spokesperson said.

The cooking cost, which excludes the labour and administrative charges, has been revised from Rs 2.08 to Rs 2.50 per meal at primary and from 2.60 to Rs.3.75 per meal at upper primary levels with effect from December one.

The CCEA further decided to increase the cost by 7.5 per cent from April one next year and again on April one, 2011. The Centre will provide for 75 per cent of the cost while the states and Union Territories will pay the balance.

However, the sharing will be in a 90-10 ratio between the Centre and the northeastern states, the spokesperson said.

The revision would involve an additional expenditure of Rs 10140.33 crore for the Central government and Rs 4280.79 crore for the states and union territories for the remaining period of the 11th Five year Plan.

The revised mid-day meal programme also sets norms for engaging cook-cum-helpers in schools. The government approved a separate provision for payment of honorarium of Rs 1,000 per month to each cook-cum-helper.

The new norms envisages provision of engaging one cook-cum-helper in a school having up to 25 students. Two cooks-cum-helpers can be engaged in a school having 26 to 100 students and one additional cook-cum-helper can be engaged for every addition of up to 100 students.

The expenditure towards the honorarium of cooks-cum-helpers will be shared between the Centre and the states and union territories.

The CCEA decided to revise the construction cost of a kitchen-cum-store being used for the mid-day meal programme. At present, the government spends up to Rs 60,000 for a kitchen shed.

This amount will be revised on the basis of State Schedule of Rates and the plinth area norm laid by the Department of School Education and Literacy on the basis of number of children studying in the school, the spokesperson said.

Transportation assistance, being given to the special category states, including eight northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, has been made at par with the Public Distribution System rates prevalent in these states.

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More pulses, vegetable and less oil in mid-day meal from now

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