Karnataka govt plans to bring mid-day meal scheme under PDS

The departments of School Education and Literacy and Food and Civil Supplies held a meeting on Friday to discuss improving quality of rice under the midday meal scheme for schoolchildren.

The Education department wants the quality of rice under the midday meal scheme to improve. The Food and Civil Supplies department is demanding the School Education department to pay more if quality rice is required.

In the meeting chaired by Ministers K H Muniyappa and Madhu Bangarappa, the officials demanded to increase the quality of rice, where the other department officials demanded for a price hike.

Currently the School Education department is procuring rice through two platforms, one from the PDS for grade 9 and 10 and another from E-auction by Food Corporation of India for classes 1 to 8. “Under the PDS, we are paying Rs 30/kg and through the Food Corporation of India it is Rs 34/kg. Now, if we increase the price under the PDS, it will be a financial burden,” said a senior official of the department.

In the meeting, it was also discussed to bring the complete procurement under the PDS. Speaking to media after the meeting, Muniyappa said, “We are planning to bring the midday meal scheme under the PDS and it will be finalised in the next meeting.”

Meanwhile, Madhu Bangarappa stated that there is no compromise in the quality and he has instructed the same to the officials in the meeting. “It was discussed about increasing the quality of rice and also requested the Food department officials to concentrate more on the quality,” he said.

However, Madhu Bangarappa said that there is no shortage of rice for the midday meal scheme. “There is no shortage of rice in schools. We are only looking at increasing the quality. There are complaints of rice and dal not cooked well and action has been initiated against such cooks,” he added.

He further added that when the tomato price skyrocketed, the department did not stop schools from using tomato in the midday meal.