Representative image.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Mid-day meal service has now started after 21 years in government lower primary school in Channur village of Hunasagi taluk, Karnataka on Wednesday.
The scheme was not flagged off in the school due to a feud among people over caste difference. A team of officials from the education department has managed to start mid-day meal service for the school children after persuading the villagers by holding a meeting with them.
There was a dispute between two communities over appointment of assistant cook for the mid-day meal service which was started in 2002 in the state. One group had staged a protest arguing that the name of the cook was not recommended as per the rules.
Due to this, the tahasildar had to intervene and directed the officials to appoint the assistant cook on a roster system. However, the scheme could not be implemented as hatred between the two communities continued and attempts made by the officials to convince them did not yield any result till then.
A total of 46 students study in the school from 1st to 5th standard. The absence of mid-day meal had affected the health of the students and they were also deprived of proper education due to lack of teachers.
While the financially strong families had shifted their children to a private school in adjacent Hunasagi town, the poor families continued to send their children to the primary school in the village. The lone teacher in the school will soon get retired. The school development management committee has also not been constituted for several years.
The officials held a meeting with the villagers and tried to convince them about the importance of serving mid-day meals to the students. Finally, the villagers agreed to start the meals. Celebrating the implementation of the scheme in the school, all the officials including mid-day meals scheme assistant director Suryavanshi and district education officer Chitrashekhar Degalamadi had a meal with the children and their parents on Wednesday.
Akshara Dasoha district officer Eshwar Neeradagi said that the contract to prepare mid-day meals has temporarily been assigned to an NGO until appointment of an assistant cook. He also said that measures will be taken to appoint a cook soon.
Block education officer Chandrakant Konnur said that steps will be taken to increase the enrollment of students in the school, apart from deploying more teachers and constituting school development management committee.