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No major impact on mid-day meal distribution: Uttar Pradesh officials
Centre taking measures to ensure mid-day meals continue; district-wise details of cylinders required sought
Officials at the UP basic education department claimed that the current cooking gas situation has had no major impact on mid-day meal distribution, which covers 1.48 crore students in 75 districts of the state.
For his part, an official with the Mid-Day Meal authority in UP said the Central government has sought a detailed district-wise break-up of cylinders required to prepare hot cooked meals in government primary and upper primary schools in the state.
“We have asked all the districts to send their requirements at the earliest,” he said.
The Centre is taking measures to ensure mid-day meals continue.
An official said that the Akshay Patra Foundation has been distributing hot cooked meals made with piped natural gas (PNG) in cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, and Mathura (Vrindavan), but centres like Prayagraj and others are experiencing some issues.
“Mid-day meals are cooked on domestic cylinders where the crisis has not deepened yet. Since this is a Central government scheme, the local administration has ensured the supply does not get disrupted,” an official, who did not wish to be named, said.
Anant Virya Das of Akshay Patra, who was in Lucknow, said, “We have PNG connections in most places, except Kanpur. It is a small set-up (in Kanpur). We are reaching out to the Kanpur district administration and hopefully it will get resolved.”
There were reports of delays in cylinder supply beginning to affect the mid-day meal programme in some government schools in Prayagraj.
Teachers and cooks at the Government Primary School at Hata in Prayagraj reported that they could not get cylinders from the Kamakhya Gas Agency in Manda Khas because the online booking system was down. As a result, meals have been prepared on firewood for the past two days, they said.
However, when contacted on Thursday afternoon, Neelam Shakyawar, the block education officer (BEO) of Manda, claimed that all schools in the area had gas cylinders and were preparing meals using them. She denied that any school was cooking mid-day meals on firewood.
In Lucknow, officials said the LPG situation has not affected the mid-day meal programme in the state capital. Lucknow district magistrate Vishakh G said meals are prepared by the Akshaya Patra Foundation using piped natural gas (PNG), ensuring uninterrupted cooking for government school students.
