Come July and 12 crore children benefiting from the mid-day meal (MDM) scheme may go without food as states have nearly run out of foodgrain and fresh supply is caught up in wrangling over the mode of payment.
Foodgrain for every quarter is usually lifted a month in advance.
But with June approaching and the department of food and public distribution and HRD ministry still to resolve differences on payment, there is no hope that rice and wheat will be lifted for the scheme for the next quarter.
Resolve mid-day meal tangle: States
States like Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and others have pressed the panic button and written to the HRD ministry.
On May 18, the school education secretary wrote to her counterpart in the department of food and public distribution expressing concern that allocation for the second quarter was not being released by FCI "possibly due to non-resolution of the pre/post-payment issue". "Timely availability of fooodgrain is key to successful implementation of MDM," she wrote.
MDM, endorsed by economists like Amartya Sen, has not only led to massive improvement in school enrolment but has also provided much-needed nutritional support to millions of children. Adoption of MDM — first started in 1925 by Madras Municipal Corporation — in the mid-1980s by states like Tamil Nadu ensured that the state did better in education.
Meanwhile, the two departments are busy arguing with even ministers Sharad Pawar and Kapil Sibal writing to each other but with no result.