Mid day meal programme extends

Agartala, Oct 24: The Centre has extended Mid-Day-Meal-Scheme to upper primary stage of education (classes VI to VIII) for 3479 Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) including nine in Tripura from 2008-09.

Official sources here today said the extension of mid day meal had already become effective from October 1, 2007 and about 1.7 crore children at upper primary are covered across the country.

The state government has received the fund allocation order as central assistance for extension of the programme. A sum of Rs 7324 crores was provided in the budget for 2007-08 for the MDM programme, representing 37% increase over the budget provision for 2006-07.

The calorific value of the mid day meal has been fixed for upper primary at 700 calories and 20 grams of protein while food grains @ 150 grams per child/ school day for the upper primary stage would be provided, the officials stated.

The cooking cost of mid day meal for upper primary stage at Rs 2.50 per child/school day with contribution of the Northeastern states of a minimum of Rs 0.20 per child/school day but the contribution of other states were Rs 0.50 per child/school day.

Transport subsidy has been enhanced for eleven Special Category States, which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu&Kashmir&Uttarakhand from Rs 100 per quintal to Rs 125 per quintal, officials added.

UNI