Mid Day Meal Programme. Annual Work Plan and Budget

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2 Mid Day Meal Programme Annual Work Plan and Budget Introduction: 1.1 Brief history. The implementation of Mid Day Meal Scheme in Manipur started from November, As per the directives of the Hon ble Supreme Court in in W.P(C ) No. 196 of 2001, the State Government started providing cooked food to all the schools of primary stage (Govt. / Aided) w.e.f The Scheme was extended to 548 Upper Primary attached with Primary classes of Manipur w.e.f. 1 st August, 2008 onwards and later 166 Upper Primary schools without primary classes were also covered from April 2009 onwards. 1.2 Process of Plan Formulation. State Govt. Directorate of Edn./S Zonal/District Education Officer/Chief Executive Officer of the District/Zone concerned Sub-Divisional/Block level Officers (DIs/AIs) SMDC concerned Headmaster concerned 2

3 2. Description and assessment of the programme implemented in the current year ( ) and proposal for next year ( ) with reference to: 2.1 Regularity and wholesomeness of mid day meals served to children; reasons for programme interruptions, if any and planning to minimise them. The release of food grains and conversion cost is not simultaneous and as a result, the utilization of food grains is not coterminous with the utilization of conversion cost. Frequent bandh and blockade leading to problems in timely transportation of foodgrains. Late release of foodgrains by FCI due to unavailability of stock is also hampering smooth implementation of the Scheme in the State. In order to ensure continuous implementation of the Scheme without any obstacle efforts are being made to convince the NGOs, Civil Society Organizations, local populace to spare the school going students from any kind of protest/agitation so that the future pillars of the nation may continue to grow and develop. 2.2 System for payment of cost of foodgrains to FCI. Foodgrains management, including adequacy of allocation, timeliness of lifting, transportation and distribution, and suitability of storage at different levels. Challenges faced and plan to overcome them. At present the following is the system of allocation and release of food grains to the Schools implementing MDM Scheme in this State. F.C.I. Dy. Commissioner concerned Zonal Education Officer/Chief Executive Officer Sub-Divisional/Block level Officers (DIs/AIs) SMDC concerned Till date the allocation of food grains are as per prescribed scale and no inadequacy of the food grains has occurred till now. Regarding the timeliness of lifting, transportation and 3

4 distribution of food grains, some difficulties are there in ensuring speedy and smooth release and distribution of food grains due to prevailing law and order situation and difficult terrain. However, necessary steps have been taken up to ensure speedy lifting of food grains by the concerned authorities. Release of funds by e-transfer could not be properly implemented due to frequent changes in account numbers of the schools and poor bank network in the State. Frequent transfer of Headmaster/Headmistress is also a major factor in delay of release of fund to SMDCs. 2.3 System for release of funds provided under cooking costs (Central and State). Please indicate the dates when the fund was released to Directorate / State Authority, District / Block / Gram Panchayat and finally to the Cooking Agency / School. Following is the system under which fund has been released to the appropriate authorities: FUND FLOW-CHART State Govt. (Commissioner Edn./S) Director (Edn./S) SMDC Concerned For the first two quarters the fund was released timely from the available funds with the directorate. In the third and fourth quarters sanction orders from GoI reached to the State late and expenditure sanction by the State Govt. was made at the end of the FY System for payment of honorarium to cook-cum-helpers and implementing agencies viz. NGOs/SHGs/trust/centralized kitchens etc. Honorarium for the Cook s are released to the concerned School Management and Development Committees (SMDCs) 4

5 2.5 System for procuring cooking ingredients (pulses, vegetables including leafy ones, salt, condiments, oil and fuel etc.), Commodities, which are centrally purchased and supplied to schools or locally purchased at school level. SMDC concerned. All the cooking ingredients are procured at the local level by the 2.6 System for cooking, serving and supervising mid day meals in the school and measures to prevent any untoward happening. Cooks-cum-Helpers are engaged for cooking and serving meals. Supervision is done on continuous basis by SMDCs. District and Zonal functionaries also supervise on regular basis. 2.7 Procedure for getting Kitchen shed constructed. Construction of Kitchen Shed is assigned to NMBA, Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI and the department is also monitoring the progress from time to time. 2.8 Procedure of procurement of kitchen devices from (i) funds released under the Mid Day Meal Programme (ii) other sources. Kitchen devices which include water container, water filter and meal plate are centrally procured and distributed directly to the schools concerned through district offices. 2.9 Capacity building and training conducted for different categories of persons involved in the Mid Day Meal Programme. Workshop at State level for Capacity Building of MDM State and District level functionaries has been held. Capacity building drive at District and Sub-District levels shall be conducted very soon Management Information System at School, Village/ Gram Panchayat, Block, District and State level and its details. MIS shall be introduced at the earliest Systems to ensure transparency and openness in all aspects of programme implementation, including inter alia, foodgrains management, ingredients procurement, cooking and serving, appointment of cooking staff, construction of kitchen sheds, and procurement of cooking devices. All notifications/instructions/directions issued to the concerned authorities from the State Govt. as well as Directorate are notified through the Departmental website for information of all concerned to ensure transparency and openness. Further, plans are being made to upload in the Departmental website the particulars of all those involved in the implementation of the MDM scheme including those of the cooks. Helpline had already been opened for redressal of grievances or queries. Campaigns have also been carried out through different media to create awareness among the general public about the Scheme. 5

6 2.12 Measures taken to rectify: a) Inter-district low and uneven utilization of food grains and cooking cost. Timely release of allocation and continuous monitoring of the lifting of the food grains and constant checking in the schools. b) Intra-district mismatch in utilization of food grains and cooking cost. Attempts are made to release foodgrains and cooking cost simultaneously. c) Delay in delivering cooking cost at school level. Efforts are on to ensure timely release by the Govt Details of Evaluation studies conducted by State/UTs and summary of its findings. Manipur University has taken up a brief evaluation study of the scheme recently. Findings are yet to be submitted by the studying team. From the next FY a NGO will be assigned to monitor the scheme Brief write up on best practices followed in the State. a) Construction of Kitchen sheds are being planned keeping in view environmental cost. b) Funds are released to the school concerned directly Instances of unhygienic food served, children falling ill, sub-standard supplies, diversion/misuse of resources, social discrimination and safety measures adopted to avoid recurrence of such incidents. No such instances reported till date Extent of involvement of NGOs and Civic Body Organizations (CBOs)/PRIs in the implementation and monitoring of the Scheme. At the school level MDM programme is implemented by a special committee consisting of representative from NGOs/Gram Panchayat/Municipalities with the concerned Headmaster/Headmistress as the member secretary of the committee Status of School Health Programme with special focus on provision of micro-nutrients, Vitamin-A, de-worming medicine, Iron and Folic acid, Zinc and recording of height, weight etc. NHRM, Manipur, has confirmed coverage of school children in their programme. 6

7 2.18 Steps taken to strengthen the monitoring mechanism in the Block, District and State level and status of constitution of SMCs at these levels. Status of formation on Standing Committee at village / school / cooking agency level. Mass awareness campaign through hoardings and audio-visual campaign in the electronic and print media were held while continuous efforts are made to encourage large scale involvement of local organizations Strategy for establishment of monitoring cell at various levels viz. Block, District and State level for effective monitoring of the scheme. Vigilance Committees at all blocks in the State have been instituted. Their effectiveness needs to be enhanced with adequate budgetary provision for meeting TA/DA Arrangement for official inspections to MDM centres and percentage of schools inspected and summary of findings and remedial measures. Routine inspections by the Department s Officials are carried out regularly and necessary actions are taken up to rectify the short comings found in the inspections Feedback/comments in respect of report of Monitoring Institutions designated for your State/UTs to monitor implementation of MDM and action taken thereon. Reports are being analyzed to take up remedial measures Grievance Redressal Mechanism if any, used by the State/UTs. Steps are being initiated Overall assessment of the manner in which implementation of the programme is contributing to the programme objectives and an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the programme implementation. Despite the existence of insurgency problems, the scheme is implemented as far as practicable in accordance with the existing guidelines. One major weakness in the implementation of the scheme is lack of means for speedy communication between the implementing centres (i.e. schools) and supervising authorities. However, steps are being taken up to develop communication through electronic devices. ************************** 7