Nagpur: Nagpur School students in the district quota has not received all or part of the food ration noon (MDM) since August, something that authorities blamed tender contract issues.
Since the pandemic began, cooked midday meals discontinued and dry rations distributed each month.
But the last supply of kits received rations as school students is in July.
Adarsh Vidya Mandir (Gandhibagh) Principal Ashnarayan Tiwari said there is no inventory for the last four months.
“Kit rations for students, including rice and lentils raw.
But the school has not received a wholesale supply from August onwards, so we can not distribute it further to our parents.
We have been told that there is no supply coming to the warehouse, from where he was transported to school, “he said.
MDM serves as a major attraction for students from families with economic background is very bad to go to school, thus meeting the country’s main plan to provide education to all children.
After the school closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, MDM also disrupted the supply chain.
Even when schools remained closed a few months down the Maharashtra government took the decision to provide dry rations to students.
Schools meadow supplied in accordance with previous practice, but this time instead of cooking, packed rations.
Students and parents were called about once a month to collect their ration kits of school.
But now no incoming supplies, schools face the heat of the parents.
Officials say the problem is the result of a “contract problem”.
A senior official intimately involved with the MDM scheme in the district told TOI that no vendors to supply foodstuffs in large quantities in Godown.
“The authorities have told us that the tender is the supply of pasture has not been granted.
So in the absence of vendor, supply has completely stopped.
This is all done at the state level, so we are powerless,” the official said.
He added that MDM is distributed via two formats in Nagpur.
“The first system is the kitchen in-house where the cooking school MDM own and distribute them to the children.
The second is a system catering centrally where the food is cooked in the same location and then transported to the school.” The official said these two systems are now being used to distribution of dry rations.
“Some schools under centralized kitchen scheme has received the rice but not lentils.
The others have not received anything,” he said.
TOI contacted the School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad but he did not respond to calls or texts in which the details of the problems mentioned MDM.
Students don’t get midday eating rations since August
