The government allocated Rs 3,000 million to provide the school midday meal for 2013, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardana said.

The Centre’s move of withdrawing subsidies on gas cylinders and restricting the number of cylinders to six a year will affect the school mid-day meal scheme, which caters to more than 1.8 crore stu

Human resource minister Kapil Sibal has urged the oil ministry to allow the use of subsidised cooking gas for mid-day meals for the current fiscal year to help prevent additional expenditure of .

Unable to get an exemption for the cooking gas cylinders used for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the wake of a steep hike in the prices of domestic gas, Union Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal has suggested that the Petroleum Ministry consider providing subsidised LPG cylinders for the current fiscal year.

“It might be preferable at this point to provide for subsidy as earlier for the LPG cylinders, instead of seeking approval for an increase in cooking cost which would necessitate revisiting allocation for the Mid-Day Meals Scheme and seeking Parliamentary approvals for the increased allocation,

Giving itself discretionary powers on release funds to States under various Central schemes, the Planning Commission has decided to restructure 16 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) into Additional Central Assistance (ACA) Schemes. The new funding pattern will be effective from 2013-14.

While restructuring the CSSs will give more flexibility to the States to utilise the funds, it will also give the Planning Commission absolute control over the quantity of money to be released. CSS funds are routed through the Ministries, but once the new system is in place as many as 11 ministries will lose monetary control over their ambitious schemes.

KOLKATA, 5 OCT: The state government will spend an additional Rs 7 crore as fuel cost for preparing a revised menu at anganwadi centres.

Jaipur: The UPA’s mid-day meal programme in Rajasthan is in tatters. The recently released Monitoring Institutions (MIs) report has revealed glaring anomalies in implementation of the scheme with many children in the state not getting any benefits and some actually going hungry.

According to a report, the scheme is not being implemented on a regular basis in some schools in the Pali district. The findings, based on figures between April 2011 and September 2011, were shared recently by the Union HRD ministry.

Foodgrain provided by the Centre for three Adarsh Schools ‘siphoned’ to a college

Apart from increasing nutrition of schoolchildren, the move will help to boost production

The Agriculture Ministry has asked the States to include millets in the mid-day meal scheme to increase the demand for the cereal and, thereby, enhance farm incomes.Millet crops or coarse cereals are known for their high nutritional value and are effective in controlling diabetes and obesity. But the area under millets has been steadily declining though they are suited for arid and semi-arid regions, besides adaptability to moisture stress.