No Aadhaar? No midday meal for students in UP schools

Students of government-run primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, will now not be provided with midday meal after June 30 if they do not have an Aadhaar card. This comes after after the Union Human Resource Development Ministry in a gazette notification on February 28 had mandated Aadhaar for the midday meal scheme and asked UP schools to make a list of students who possess the cards.

However, the direction has left schools puzzled as the schools were closed during the summer vacation and was reopened on June 1. And those officials who are handling the midday meal scheme said that its difficult to follow the direction and coordinate since the schools were reopened after the vacations.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked basic shiksha adhikaris to get the Aadhaar cards made for school students by June 30, failing of which supply of midday meals to the students will be stopped.

The direction from the State government comes three months after the Union Human Resource Development Ministry made Aadhaar cards mandatory for midday meals and asked UP schools to make a list of students who possess the cards.

In Meerut district, statistics reveal that out of a total of 1.73 lakh students in 1,561 schools, only 85,000 students regularly attend school. Out of these, some 28,900 students have Aadhaar cards, according to officials.

OneIndia News