What about the extra/surplus grains? What is to the hundreds of tones of extra rice and grains? Are they being sold in the black market?

Many NGOs report that grains supplied by the government to the contractors under the mid day meal scheme are excess. Almost 20 percent of the grains are unutilized as  all  children do not consume the quantity of food  stipulated under the scheme.

The Akshaya Patra (which is feeding about 9,00,000 children per day, will be saving about 15 to 20 tonnes of grains each day (two lorry loads of grains each day). About 400 tonnes of grains each month!  The Akshaya Patra does not report any savings in grains. So the question is what is happening to these grains? This  is one of the greatest mysteries.

Many of the NGOs surrender the excess grains and take only whatever they actually consume.

Recently several NGO contractors have been caught while they were trying to divert the grains to the black market and these happenings have been reported in the media.

Some sample stories have been reported here:

Mid-day meal scandal: 3 teachers arrested

Agencies Posted: Oct 24, 2008 at 1418 hrs IST

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Police have arrested three persons including two teachers for allegedly selling food items meant for mid-day meal to shopkeepers in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said on Friday.

Acting on a tip off, police on Thursday night raided a shop in Kishtwar town and caught two government school teachers – Master Riyaz Ahmed and Imtiyaz – when they were trying to sell ration of mid-day meals, they said.

A case has also been registered against them, sources said, adding 800 kgs of rice and other food items meant for the mid-day meals were also recovered from their possession.

 

Uttar Pradesh teachers to face action for mid-day meal anomalies

Indo Asian News Service

Last Updated: January 10, 2009 03:10:04
Lucknow, Jan 10 (IANS) Teachers and principals of over 100 government-run primary schools in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district will face action for irregularities in the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme, an official said Saturday.

'These teachers are under scanner for not providing regular lunch to their students under the MDscheme,' official in-charge of basic education in Etawah Naresh Verma told IANS on phone.

He said an inquiry has been initiated against the teachers, who would either be suspended or sacked depending upon their involvement in the anomalies.

The anomalies in the MDM scheme came to the fore during the on-going inspections in the district schools by basic education authorities.

'We found that schools in Sarsainawar village of Etawah, about 250 km from here, were not providing lunch to their students for the last three months,' Verma said.

Schools in Takha village of the district were not following the prescribed diet plan under the MDM. The scheme states that every child should be provided with minimum 300 calories of energy and 8-12 grams of protein for a minimum period of 200 days, Verma pointed out.

About 150,000 schools and over 18.6 million students are covered under the MDM scheme in Uttar Pradesh. Under the scheme, lunch is provided to students till Class 8.

National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, also known as Mid-Day Meal Programme, was launched by the central government Aug 15, 1995. Its objective is to boost universalisation of primary education and improve nutritional status of children.

Editors note: It is a grave offence to either divert the grains meant for mid day meal to any other purpose or to sell the grains in the black market. The NGO has to give a utilization report before it draws the next consignment of grains. The excess grains that Akshaya Patra is potentially saving at  today’s market pricing could be worth Rs Rs 7 lakh per day. 

The big question is : what is happening to the grains? Why is the Akshaya Patra not reporting any savings in grains allotted for the program?

Is this the real meaning of the word Akshaya Patra – a vessel with unlimited capacity to hold or hoard?