The supply of mid day meals began on October 21 across Karnataka as the state opened schools for Classes 1 to 5 along with high school students. But very few arrangements were done at a Government High School in Kyadiguppa in Koppal district. Last week, the high school students had to walk nearly one kilometre to a government primary school in the same village to eat their mid day meals.
Rajendra Sinnur, who is the Headmaster, said, "Earlier, high school and primary school used to function in the same building. But with the increasing number of students, the high school students including Classes 9 and 10 were moved to a new building. We moved to the new building from September 20 when schools reopened. However, the mid day meals were cooked at the old building. And students had to walk one kilometre during their lunch break."
There are a total of 132 students studying in Classes 9 and 10. While the department organised a small van to ferry girl students to the other building at lunch time, boys had to walk. But after the headmaster explained the problem to the officer in charge of mid day meals in the department, they have made an arrangement to supply meals at the new building. The HM added, "Now the department has been paying travel allowance to bring the mid day meals from one building to the other. It is brought at a cost of Rs 1,500. The department has promised us that they will be assigning a cook to prepare meals at the new building itself. But they are yet to be appointed."
Similarly, there is no provision of drinking water at this school. He explains, "I have requested one of the neighbours near my school and they have been providing water for toilets in our school. For the purpose of drinking water, I have stored some water cans and every afternoon, I fetch it from a nearby tap at home and bring them to school on my bike. That's the current arrangement for drinking water for students. The Gram Panchayat has to arrange drinking water in a month's time so that students keep coming to school without missing the classes."
As many as 60 lakh children are benefitted by this scheme across Karnataka. Meals are cooked at a cost of Rs 4.97 per student for those in Classes I to V and Rs 7.45 per student for those between Classes VI and X.
