CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy tells officials to maintain quality in midday meal scheme

Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed the authorities to immediately fill vacant posts of mandal education officer (MEO) and deputy DEO to increase the monitoring of schools. He also ordered monitoring of the midday meal programme regularly by creating a proper mechanism and checking of quality in rice before supplying it to schools and Anganwadis. He said that the rice bags should be labelled as midday meal or ICDS rice and quality tests must be done every month.

The Chief Minister held a review on the maintenance of government schools, midday meals, Sampoorna Poshana and Nadu-Nedu in the education department here on Wednesday. He issued some key directives to the officials.

During the review, the Chief Minister said that cooks should be given credit for cooking food deliciously and emphasised on conducting regular training programmes. The quality of peanut chikkis must be monitored regularly, he said, and directed authorities to conduct random tests on quality at manufacturing, supply and distribution stages.

The officials informed that eggs are being stamped at the time of distribution, as the Chief Minister ordered strict action against the agencies upon distribution without stamping.

On second phase of Nadu-Nedu works in schools, he directed the officials to expedite the works and told them to take appropriate measures like appointing a watchman for safety, as valuable equipment is being installed in schools.

Asserting that the maintenance of schools is as important as Nadu-Nedu, he directed the officials to set up a call center on the maintenance of schools for registering complaints and resolving the issues from time to time.

He said that all the works are to be audited four times a year and repairs works be conducted immediately as all the works come with a warranty.

He said that there should be strict supervision of the YSR Sampoorna Poshana and Sampoorna Poshana Plus programme. He ordered filling of vacant posts of Anganwadi Supervisors, Anganwadi workers and helpers.

Ministers Botcha Satyanarayana, K V Usha Sricharan, chief secretary Sameer Sharma, education department special CS Budithi Rajasekhar, women and child welfare principal secretary AR Anuradha, finance secretary N S Gulzar, school education commissioner S Suresh Kumar and others attended the review.