‘Mid-Day-Meal’ imperative for universalization of Elementary Education’ CS

JAMMU: The Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam today chaired a meeting of State Level Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee (SLSMC) of Centrally Sponsored ‘Mid-Day-Meal’ (MDM) scheme and approved its budget proposal for the year 2020-21.
The Committee approved the draft Annual Action Plan amounting to Rs 160 crores for financial year 2020-21.
Administrative Secretaries of Finance Department, School Education Department, Planning, Development & Monitoring Department, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department and Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution Department participated in the meeting. While reviewing the status and progress of implementation of MDM scheme during 2019-20, Chief Secretary impressed upon the School Education Department to boost universalization of elementary education by improving enrolment, attendance, retention, learning levels of students by supplementing their nutritional needs.
With regard to flagship ‘School Health Programme’, it was informed that 12 lac students of government schools are aimed to be covered under the programme to effectively monitor their cognitive developments. The Chief Secretary directed the department to complete the initial mapping of students by July 15th, 2020.
During 2019-20, it was mentioned that the Department organized district level cooking competitions for cook-cum-helpers in Jammu division. To promote deeper understanding of nutritional and healthy cooking among the 30 winners of these competitions, an advanced training course at Food Craft Institute, Jammu, is being exclusively organized by the department.
The Chief Secretary directed the department to recommend the proposal regarding enhancement in honorarium of cook-cum-helpers, to Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

KR Desk