Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court (HC) has directed the Trivendra Singh-led state government to submit all details by Thursday regarding how school children were being provided foodgrains daily and reimbursed for their mid-day meals along with a list of beneficiaries amid the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, said Kamlesh Kumar, the counsel of the petitioners, Nainital based Sanjay Rawat and Madan Singh Mehta.
Though the hill state’s schools are shut since March 13 because of the pandemic, students are being provided with foodgrains daily and also reimbursed for the expenses incurred to prepare the mid-day meals.
Altogether, there are 16,735 government-run and aided schools in the state, including primary, upper primary, high school, and intermediate.
Earlier, the petitioners – Rawat and Mehta – had moved court, alleging irregularities and inconsistencies in providing foodgrains and the reimbursements for preparing mid-day meals amid the Covid-19 epidemic.
The cooking cost for each student works out to around Rs4.97 for the primary section (class I to V) and over Rs7.4 for the middle school (class VI to VIII), according to the Central government’s rules.
Besides, the primary section and middle school students are entitled to 100 and 150 grams of rice daily, respectively.
Kumar said the counsel, who appeared on behalf of the state government, informed the court that though the authorities have incurred all the costs for mid-day meals between March 13 and May 31, they haven’t provided any for June yet.
{{/usCountry}}Kumar said the counsel, who appeared on behalf of the state government, informed the court that though the authorities have incurred all the costs for mid-day meals between March 13 and May 31, they haven’t provided any for June yet.
{{/usCountry}}This led the court to seek the details from the state government.
Earlier, the state government had converted schools as makeshift shelter homes for those who were stranded in the state because of the imposition of nationwide lockdown restrictions, which were enforced from March 25 to contain the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Arvind Pandey, state minister for school education, had directed the school education secretary to ensure that government-run schools are converted into makeshift shelter homes for the stranded people, who were provided food by respective district administrations.
Later, these schools were also converted into temporary quarantine centres for those, who returned to the hill state amid the easing of lockdown restrictions.