Aizawl, Oct 21 (PTI) Several schools of Mizoram, mostly in rural areas, are now facing crisis in providing midday meals to students in primary and middle level due to a financial crunch, the president of a teachers’ association of the state claimed on Monday.
The Primary School Teachers’ Association (MPSTA) and the Mizoram Middle School Teachers’ Association (MMSTA) last week expressed apprehension that students will cease to receive mid-day meal from October 18 due to the alleged failure of the government to provide sufficient funds.
The School Education Department said that a technical issue was behind the delay in releasing funds for mid-day meal.
The scheme was partly continued after the school education department director discussed the matter with representatives of the two associations last week and requested them to be patient, MMSTA president Rosangzuala told PTI.
“Even though the scheme continued even after the October 18 deadline, several schools mostly in rural areas have stopped providing midday meal to their students due to shortage of funds,” he said.
Schools have not received funds for material costs for seven months and cooks’ remuneration for four months, Rosangzuala said.
He claimed that teachers in several schools contributed their own money to continue the midday meal scheme and pay the cooks’ honorarium.
They also bought cooking materials from shops on credit, the MMSTA president said.
He expressed apprehension that the scheme may come to a complete halt if the government does not provide them funds before October end.
The state school education department has claimed that the implementation of Public Financial Management System (PFMS), a new financial management platform for schemes, has caused delays in the payment of funds for material cost and honorarium of cooks.
In a press statement, the department explained that under the PFMS, funds have to be channelled through State Link Scheme (SLS), which requires the opening of three accounts.
“As these accounts need to be linked with the state finance department, PFMS, the state treasury and the Centre’s PFMS, it makes the process highly time-consuming,” the statement said.
Besides, PFMS being a new system, a significant amount of time was spent consulting the officials concerned in order to be well versed in the system and only after completing all these processes, applications for central assistance could be submitted, it said.
It said that the first instalment of funds for implementation of midday meals for the 2023-24 fiscal was received by mid-October.
Despite several challenges, the government prioritised the continuation of the midday meals programme and sanctioned its share of Rs. 484.29 lakh on October 18, the statement added.
It said that under the PFMS, subsequent instalments can be applied only after 75 per cent of funds from the previous instalment has been spent.
While urging the teachers to be patient, the department expressed hope that the midday meal crisis would soon be resolved as officials have been sent to Delhi to pursue the matter with the Centre. PTI COR NN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.