NE NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI, JAN 19
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the officials to maintain the quality and taste of the food served to the students through a mid-day meal scheme from Pulivendula to Amaravati here on Saturday.
Addressing at a review meeting on mid-day meal scheme, Nedu Nadu and other educational related welfare schemes, the Chief Minister directed the officials to go for green channel payments while paying Rs 3,000 to maids and for stationery items for the mid-day meal program.
He suggested the officials include headmaster and three mothers from the parents in the school-level committee that inspects the quality of food and to give feedback. The parents’ committee should have lunch with the schoolchildren and check the quality of food. He said that the same committee will check the Nadu-Nedu and sanitation programmes. In the second stage, checking would be conducted by the village secretariat employees followed by SHG groups in the third stage. Later, in the fourth stage, the inspection would be done by Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) or any other organization. He ordered officials to hand over the inspection monitoring works to RDO and the officer should monitor quality and food safety. The Chief Minister said that Rs 1,300 crore would be spent every year for this prestigious qualitative mid-day meals programme.
App for monitoring mid-day meals
Officials informed the Chief Minister that they are creating an App for effective monitoring of the mid-day meals programme and said the App would function based on Artificial Intelligence. They said the App would be used for food quality inspection and Chief Minister is positive on this step. The quality checking of the mid-day meal programme will begin on January 21.
Tenders for egg supply at Divisional-level
The Chief Minister has ordered to call for tenders for the supply of eggs at divisional level and officials said that they would go for reverse tendering in this. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered the officials that regulations should facilitate everyone, including poultry farm owners, to participate in the tendering process. He said that price would be reasonable if poultry farm owners are included in this.
The Chief Minister asked the officials not to compromise on the quality of groundnut-jaggery chikki. The officials said that training would be provided to the self-help groups for the manufacturing of quality groundnut-jaggery chikki.
Amma Vodi
The Chief Minister said Amma Vodi is a prestigious programme in the education sector and the programme should strengthen the belief among the public. The officials said that a self-assessment App is being prepared and it would be finalized in a week. The Chief Minister asked the officials to provide information on sanitation along with the mid-day meal programme on January 21. He said the committees are also responsible for keeping the school clean and tidy.
So far, 42,32,098 beneficiaries have selected under Amma Vodi scheme and Rs. 6,028.98 crore have deposited in 40,19,323 mothers accounts with Rs 15,000 each. And 2,12,775 beneficiaries are under consideration
Nadu-Nedu
The Chief Minister has ordered the officials to release revolving funds immediately and sought details about painting designs in the schools under the Nadu-Nedu programme. The officials said that two to three designs are being prepared and Chief Minister has ordered to finalize them in two to three days. Moreover, the Chief Minister had also ordered to buy furniture, paints, bathroom fittings and fans under Centralized Procurement.
Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh and other education department officials were among those present at the review meeting.
