BHUBANESWAR: To bring in transparency in mid day meal (MDM) scheme implementation, the State Government has developed a SMS-based application which would monitor the programme on a real time basis.
Developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), the SMS-based application would help monitor daily consumption of MDM as well as iron/folic acid (IFA) tablets on a weekly basis. This apart, attendance of cook-cum-helper of the schools would also be generated every month.
The system requires the headmasters/headmistress or MDM-in-charge to send SMS on a daily, weekly and monthly basis on the meal, IFA tablet and cook-cum-helper absentee statement data to a specified number 15544.
The monitoring system would also help understand the reasons behind interruption in the programme's execution in schools so that corrective measures can be taken by district, block and cluster level functionaries.
Under-reporting and false reporting by school authorities can also be detected through the system. The system has specified roles of functionaries right from school to State nodal office level.
There are over 46.71 lakh children who take mid day meal on a daily basis on working days. There are about 62,784 kitchens where the food is cooked.
The massive scheme has run into controversy over quality of food and hygiene standards apart from pilferage.