(a) whether the Supreme Court of India has issued a directive in November, 2004 to provide
cooked meal to each student of Government schools in all the States and Union Territories under
the Mid-day Meal Scheme;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT(SMT. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a) & (b): Vide order dated 18.11.2004 passed in WP (C) 196/2001, the Supreme Court of
India directed that every child eligible for cooked meal under the Mid-day Meal Scheme in all
States and Union Territories, shall be provided with the said meal immediately and, in any
case, not later than the month of January, 2005. It was also clarified that it would not be
open to the State Governments/Union Territories to delay the implementation of the Scheme
beyond January, 2005 on the ground that the necessary assistance has not been released by the
Central Government. The Scheme should be implemented forthwith and cooking costs can be claimed
from the Central Government in terms of its letter dated 6th October, 2004, which, in fact,
requires those governments to use available resources and recover it later from the Central
Government.
(c): At present, the MDMS covers children studying in classes I-VIII in Government,
Local body, Government aided and National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools,and Education
Guarantee Scheme (EGS)/Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres including
Madarsas/ Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) all over the country.
Under the MDM Scheme, the Government provides Central Assistance under following components:-
i) Foodgrain (wheat/rice) @ 100 gram and 150 gram per child per school day at Primary
stage and Upper Primary stage respectively.
ii) Cooking cost, which includes the cost of pulses, vegetables, oils, spices and fuel
@ Rs. 2.69 per child per day for primary and @ Rs. 4.03 per child per day for upper primary
children from 1.4.2010.
iii) Honorarium to Cook-cum-helpers @ Rs.1000/- per month.
iv) Cost of construction of kitchen-cum-store at the State Schedule of Rates and the
prescribed plinth area norm.
v) Kitchen devices @ Rs.5000/- per school.
vi) Transportation assistance in the 11 Special Category States (viz. Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim,
Uttarakhand and Tripura) at par with the Public Distribution System and in other States/UTs
@ Rs. 750/- MT.
vii) Assistance for Monitoring, Management & Evaluation (MME) of the Scheme @ 2% of the
total assistance for (a) foodgrain, (b) transportation cost and (c) cooking cost (including
honorarium to cooks-cum-helpers).
The expenditure on cooking, honorarium to cook-cum-helper and construction of kitchen-cum-store
is shared between the Central Government and North-Eastern Region States on 90:10 basis and
between other States/UTs on 75:25 basis.