MPs give cold shoulder to midday meal scheme

Hyderabad: Members of Parliament cutting across the party lines in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been shying away from presiding over the District Level Meeting (DLM) to take stock of the centrally sponsored Midday Meal Scheme (MDMS).

It may be mentioned here that the scheme was launched by the Centre across the country following a direction from the Supreme Court and to encourage enrollment of children in the primary and secondary schools across the country.

Speaking to The Hans India, sources in the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh State Education Departments said, "in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, MPs used to follow it by presiding over the DLMs of the MDMS." However, the same is given a raw deal by the elected members in the post-bifurcation scenario."

As per the rules being followed the senior-most MP of Lok Sabha has to chair the DLM and review the implementation of the MDMS.

According to the data submitted to the Union HRD Ministry by the Telangana State School Education Department (TSSED), no meeting of DLM had been conducted during the academic year 2016-17 chaired by the senior most Lok Sabha MP in 27 districts of the State.

And, the situation is no different even in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years the sources added.

A senior TSSED official said that some MPs only call the officials of the various State government departments as part of the quarterly review of the central schemes in their parliamentary constituency.

It was during these meetings that MDMS was discussed. But, in several districts the DLC meetings of MDMS has been given a go by as some MPs feel meetings like DLMs are insignificant and not giving priority to preside over the same, the sources pointed out.

Adding, it is the same in case of all MPs. There are TRS-11, TDP-1, BJP-1, and MIM-1 and YSRCP-1 MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha in Telangana.

Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh also the MPs are not showing interest in presiding over the DLC meetings of the MDMS.

During the academic session of 2016-17 data submitted by the Andhra Pradesh State School Education Department (APSED) pointed out "No meeting of District level committee under the chairpersonship of the senior-most MP of the Lok Sabha in 8 districts.

"And, there is not much change witnessed among the AP MPs in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years," the sources said.

There are TDP's 15, YSRCP' 8 and BJP's 2 MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha from AP.

Further, some of the MPs are reportedly not interested to attend the meeting as they may be asked to make allocations from the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds for providing infrastructure in the schools.

Particularly, Telangana is facing a Herculean task of completing about 15,000 kitchen-cum-stores attached to the government schools.

So far the State could only complete around 55 per cent of the kitchen-cum-stores as part of implanting the MDMS.

Similarly, the LPG coverage under MDMS in Telangana has remained below 25 per cent, the sources said.

Likewise, in Andhra Pradesh also the construction of about 7,000 kitchen-cum-stores are pending and less than 25 per cent of the total number of schools implementing MDMS has so far been covered with LPG facility.