No one to check up on mid-day meals
25 Oct 2012 6:30 AM IST
[Millennium Post Investigation]
Mid-Day Meal Scam: Part- IV
Read Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-V, Part-VI & Part-VII
The municipal corporations of Delhi [MCD], North, South and East, are using almost the entire budget and grain allocated for mid-day meal by the centre. But the budget allocated for monitoring, management and evaluation [MME] of the scheme is lying unused. As per records of the MCD, not even a single ruppee of Rs 52.22 lakhs allocated for MME were used in 2010-11 and only 13 per cent of the MME was used in 2011-12.
According to the guidelines of the central government, an additional 1.8 per cent of the budget allocated for mid-day meal [MDM] – cost of food grains, conversion cost, cost of transportation and honorarium for cook-cum-helpers – is given to the implementing agencies for MME. This is done to ensure that students are provided nutritious meal. This provision of MME should be at the level of implementing agency – in this case, the local civic bodies – and is an additional provision besides third party monitoring by designated monitoring institute in the state [which is Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi]. We have already explained in our earlier stories what happens to the observations and recommendations of the annual reports of CSDS.
The central has allocated Rs 103. 58 lakh for monitoring, management and evaluation [MME] for 2012-13. Of which, not even a single rupee has been used so far. Surprisingly, Delhi doesn’t have MME structure for mid-day meal [MDM].
As per the minutes of the meeting (MOM) of Programme Approval Board of MDM held on 3 April 2012, accessed by Millennium Post, the board expressed serious concerns on low utilisation of MME budget. For which the nodal officer of MDM in Delhi, Diwan Chand, Special Secretary, Government of NCT Delhi, submitted that ‘MME structure will be in place within three months.’
But there is no system or structure of MME at any level in Delhi, either for the schools of local civic bodies or Delhi government.
The board has also suggested that private organisations should be engaged for monitoring but of no use. The state level monitoring committee of MDM scheme could not have even a single meeting since its inception.
Now, its clear how organised this scandal is and what service these NGOs are doing in connivance with officers and politicians in the capital city. We have earlier explained how reluctant these NGOs are to show their accounts to the team of experts appointed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. Some schools don’t have the mechanism to weigh the MDM and only a committee including principal, teacher-in charge of the MDM, one guardian and distributor of MDM is entrusted to taste the food to check its quality. The boiled plain rice, boiled watery dal or subji, puri and halwa always pass this test no matter what.
In 2011-12, the MCD was provided Rs 49 lakh for monitoring but only Rs 6 lakh were used in the monitoring. A mere 12.23 per cent of the budget. According to sources, this amount, too, was not used in actual monitoring by MCD but to inspect the 17 kitchens of 13 NGOs in order to finalise the contract for next three years [11 kitchens of nine NGOs were recommended]. Not even a single penny of the Rs 52 lakh allocated for MME was spend in 2010-11. Before that there was no separate budget for MME and no provision of MME at central level.
The programme also failed to inculcate hygiene among primary students, which was also observed by Millennium Post team during the school visits. It is also mentioned by Centre for Study of Developing Societies [CSDS] in its annual report. Students are not asked to wash their hands before meal which against the guidelines of MDM. Surprisingly, most of the schools of local civic bodies have not made proper arrangement for water so the question of washing hands never arises. On the one hand, government agencies and doctors emphasise on washing hands before eating to avoid diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and jaundice. The monitoring institute also observed 64 per cent of schools do not maintain MDM registers at all.
‘The government must increase conversion charges from Rs 3.11 per meal to Rs 5.50 per meal and provide LPG cylinders to us on subsidised rates. It will not be possible otherwise for us to continue the MDM in the city,’ said Anil Aggarwal, Chairperson of Ekta Shakti Foundation and CMD of AFP Infrastructure. Similar views were also expressed by Jaspreet Singh, manager of Stri Shakti, Pradumn Tiwari of Dalit Manav Utthan Sansthan, Mukesh Gupta of Maitri Research & Development Foundation, Chakresh Aggarwal of Bhartiya Manav Kalyan Parishad (BMKP), Rajkumar, a member of Surya Charitable Welfare Society Trust and the younger brother of its chairman Govind Maheshwari. Despite it all, these people claim that they ‘manage it somehow’.
In our earlier stories, we have already explained from where the money comes to ‘manage it somehow’: this includes pay cuts to officers, leaders and partners as well as putting money from their own pockets to ensure students eat. A break up of Rs 2.89 of conversion cost (cooking cost) per meal per student is shown in figure 1 [titled Slip Between Cup and Lip], it also shows where the grain should go.
MCD issued an advertisement inviting applications from willing NGOs to supply MDM for its schools on 25 August 2011.
According to it, the NGOs will be provided 100 gm of grains and applicable conversion cost per student per meal. NGOs will have to deliver cooked food at the schools and also make arrangements for the distribution among the students. This is a complete violation of the guidelines of MDM programme.
The corporation sold 42 applications, out of these 25 kitchens of 22 registered NGOs applied for examination of their kitchen. These were inspected by a kitchen committee and 17 kitchens of 14 NGOs were found fit. A total of 11 kitchens of nine voluntary organisations were recommended for supply of MDM. Of this nine kitchens of eight NGOs were finally allocated over 10 lakh students in NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.
Mid-Day Meal Scam: Part- IV
Read Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-V, Part-VI & Part-VII
The municipal corporations of Delhi [MCD], North, South and East, are using almost the entire budget and grain allocated for mid-day meal by the centre. But the budget allocated for monitoring, management and evaluation [MME] of the scheme is lying unused. As per records of the MCD, not even a single ruppee of Rs 52.22 lakhs allocated for MME were used in 2010-11 and only 13 per cent of the MME was used in 2011-12.
According to the guidelines of the central government, an additional 1.8 per cent of the budget allocated for mid-day meal [MDM] – cost of food grains, conversion cost, cost of transportation and honorarium for cook-cum-helpers – is given to the implementing agencies for MME. This is done to ensure that students are provided nutritious meal. This provision of MME should be at the level of implementing agency – in this case, the local civic bodies – and is an additional provision besides third party monitoring by designated monitoring institute in the state [which is Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi]. We have already explained in our earlier stories what happens to the observations and recommendations of the annual reports of CSDS.
The central has allocated Rs 103. 58 lakh for monitoring, management and evaluation [MME] for 2012-13. Of which, not even a single rupee has been used so far. Surprisingly, Delhi doesn’t have MME structure for mid-day meal [MDM].
As per the minutes of the meeting (MOM) of Programme Approval Board of MDM held on 3 April 2012, accessed by Millennium Post, the board expressed serious concerns on low utilisation of MME budget. For which the nodal officer of MDM in Delhi, Diwan Chand, Special Secretary, Government of NCT Delhi, submitted that ‘MME structure will be in place within three months.’
But there is no system or structure of MME at any level in Delhi, either for the schools of local civic bodies or Delhi government.
The board has also suggested that private organisations should be engaged for monitoring but of no use. The state level monitoring committee of MDM scheme could not have even a single meeting since its inception.
Now, its clear how organised this scandal is and what service these NGOs are doing in connivance with officers and politicians in the capital city. We have earlier explained how reluctant these NGOs are to show their accounts to the team of experts appointed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. Some schools don’t have the mechanism to weigh the MDM and only a committee including principal, teacher-in charge of the MDM, one guardian and distributor of MDM is entrusted to taste the food to check its quality. The boiled plain rice, boiled watery dal or subji, puri and halwa always pass this test no matter what.
In 2011-12, the MCD was provided Rs 49 lakh for monitoring but only Rs 6 lakh were used in the monitoring. A mere 12.23 per cent of the budget. According to sources, this amount, too, was not used in actual monitoring by MCD but to inspect the 17 kitchens of 13 NGOs in order to finalise the contract for next three years [11 kitchens of nine NGOs were recommended]. Not even a single penny of the Rs 52 lakh allocated for MME was spend in 2010-11. Before that there was no separate budget for MME and no provision of MME at central level.
The programme also failed to inculcate hygiene among primary students, which was also observed by Millennium Post team during the school visits. It is also mentioned by Centre for Study of Developing Societies [CSDS] in its annual report. Students are not asked to wash their hands before meal which against the guidelines of MDM. Surprisingly, most of the schools of local civic bodies have not made proper arrangement for water so the question of washing hands never arises. On the one hand, government agencies and doctors emphasise on washing hands before eating to avoid diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and jaundice. The monitoring institute also observed 64 per cent of schools do not maintain MDM registers at all.
‘The government must increase conversion charges from Rs 3.11 per meal to Rs 5.50 per meal and provide LPG cylinders to us on subsidised rates. It will not be possible otherwise for us to continue the MDM in the city,’ said Anil Aggarwal, Chairperson of Ekta Shakti Foundation and CMD of AFP Infrastructure. Similar views were also expressed by Jaspreet Singh, manager of Stri Shakti, Pradumn Tiwari of Dalit Manav Utthan Sansthan, Mukesh Gupta of Maitri Research & Development Foundation, Chakresh Aggarwal of Bhartiya Manav Kalyan Parishad (BMKP), Rajkumar, a member of Surya Charitable Welfare Society Trust and the younger brother of its chairman Govind Maheshwari. Despite it all, these people claim that they ‘manage it somehow’.
In our earlier stories, we have already explained from where the money comes to ‘manage it somehow’: this includes pay cuts to officers, leaders and partners as well as putting money from their own pockets to ensure students eat. A break up of Rs 2.89 of conversion cost (cooking cost) per meal per student is shown in figure 1 [titled Slip Between Cup and Lip], it also shows where the grain should go.
MCD issued an advertisement inviting applications from willing NGOs to supply MDM for its schools on 25 August 2011.
According to it, the NGOs will be provided 100 gm of grains and applicable conversion cost per student per meal. NGOs will have to deliver cooked food at the schools and also make arrangements for the distribution among the students. This is a complete violation of the guidelines of MDM programme.
The corporation sold 42 applications, out of these 25 kitchens of 22 registered NGOs applied for examination of their kitchen. These were inspected by a kitchen committee and 17 kitchens of 14 NGOs were found fit. A total of 11 kitchens of nine voluntary organisations were recommended for supply of MDM. Of this nine kitchens of eight NGOs were finally allocated over 10 lakh students in NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.
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