Leader of MCD House Arya demands rise in mid day meal amount

New Delhi, Oct 9 (UNI) Leader of the House in Municipal Corporation of Delhi Subhash Arya today demanded from Delhi Government that daily mid-day meal amount should increased from Rs two to Rs three per child .

Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Arya, who paid a surprise visit to various NGOs interested to provide mid-day meal to students, said keeping in view the price rise of food commodities, it was imperative that per day amount of mid-day meal should be increased.

Mr Arya, who was accompanied by Chairman of the Education Committee, Prithvi Raj Sawhney and other senior officers of Education Department, said,''in case, the children are to be provided a nutritious meal, then an increase of Rs one per child is essential.'' Mr Arya said that in the amount of Rs two per child, MCD was finding difficulties to provide nutritious meal to children.

''If the children are to be provided vegetables or seasonal fruits according to protein and calories contents fixed for this purpose then this increase of amount to Rs three per child per day is imperative. The Delhi Government shall take approval from the Central Government for increasing the amount,''he said.

Informing that during the current financial year about Rs 30 crores have been provided for mid-day meal, he demanded that this amount should be increased to Rs 40.5 crores.

Currently, the MCD is providing mid-day meal to about nine lakh students studying in its 1850 primary schools.

At present, 11 NGOs are engaged in preparing mid-day meals for schools situated in 12 Zones of MCD.

UNI