BENGALURU: Government and aided schools in Karnataka have been told to ensure 100 percent vaccination of cooking staff for midday meals, deep cleaning of kitchen inventory rooms and drinking water facilities before reopening on October 21.
This comes in the wake of the state government preparing to resume the midday meal programme in schools across the state after the Dasara holidays.
The Deputy Director of Mysuru district had issued directions to prepare for midday meal resumption on Saturday, in which the official added that in case schools have insufficient inventory of rice and wheat and the department does not deliver, they are permitted to approach fair price shops and give back the ration when the inventory arrives from the department. Schools are also allowed to take help from locals.
Since March 14, 2020, due to the COVID emergency situation, midday meals for students in classes one to ten had stopped. As per a high court order, the National Food Security Act, (NFSA) 2013, and Mid Day Meal Rules -2015, ration was distributed to beneficiaries.
DDPI Mysuru asked the schools to check the grains and rations in the inventory and ensure that expired items are not used.
Should gas stoves and vessels need to be fixed, they can do so within Rs 5000-Rs 8000 under the Akshara Dasoha funds.
By October 21, schools should be supplied with rice and wheat and the remaining materials for cooking should be procured and meals cooked at a cost of Rs 4.97 per student for those in classes one to five and Rs 7.45 per student for those between classes six and 10.
The assistant director of Akshara Dasoha has been asked to prepare a route allocation list between October 16 and 20 and on the day of the school reopening (October 21), principals or school officials have been asked to check the quality of the items before accepting them.
Local officials at all levels including block resource coordinators and cluster resource coordinators have been asked to oversee the implementation of the midday meal programme.
The joint director of the Midday Meals Programme Narayana Gowda who had called the meeting based on which the circular was issued was unavailable for comment.
State High School Assistant Teachers' Association president HK Manjunath told The New Indian Express that preparations for resuming midday meals have been ordered in districts by their respective DDPIs.