School Education Department has directed all Chief Education Officers to submit bank account details of eligible students within 10 days for crediting cooking cost of Mid-Day Meal scheme directly to them via Direct Benefit Transfer mode.
The government has also decided that two-month advance dryration (rice) would be provided to the eligible children through the Departmentof Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
The initiative was taken in view of the closure of schoolsdue to coronavirus outbreak.
Principal Secretary School Education Asgar Hassan Samoon hasalready directed CEOs to distribute two-month advance dry ration (rice) to theeligible 88,6905 children (primary 584387) and (upper primary 30,2518) in alldistricts of J&K.
Samoon said the 4700 mt ton of food grains for first quarterof 2020-21 has already been approved for distribution to eligible children inJ&K.
He said the initiative taken by the Lt Governor wouldcontinue till situation returns to normal.
The scheme is aimed to improve the nutritional status of thechildren from classes 1 to class 8 besides encouraging poor children to attendmore regularly.
According to the scheme, every child enrolled in the primaryclass is provided a free supply of 100 gram of food grains per day and 150 gramare provided to every child of upper primary respectively.
The scheme has also a provision to spent Rs 4.48 for cookingpurposes for every child of primary level per day and Rs 6.71 for every upperprimary level child per day.
Mission Director Mid-Day Meal scheme Arun Manhas said theyhave received good response from the CEOs and already more than 60 percent ofbank account details of students have been submitted to the directorate.
“We are completing the account collection process within thestipulated time,” he said.