DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Dec 20: Mid-day meal, on one side brings cheers to the students of poor family but on the other side the suppliers in Diglipur, the DWAKRA groups, are facing the ire of the season.
As per rule from Class I to Class V, sanctioned amount of one day meal is Rs. 08.51 and for class VI to VIII, it is Rs. 09.75. As per law weekly twice boiled eggs have to be served to children by the suppliers without fail.
For eggs the DWACRA groups are getting Rs. 06.25 in Diglipur while the same DWACRA groups are getting Rs 7 at Mayabunder and Rs. 6.75 at Rangat. The difference is due to change in tender process in later places but sadly in Diglipur, the change was not adopted.
The rate Rs. 6.25 for eggs was okay earlier, when the supplier RSN provided eggs at the rate of Rs.5.25 to the groups when school session started. The cost was manageable to them as then the vegetable prices were also very low and they adjusted the loss on the eggs in vegetables.
But now RSN is now providing eggs at Rs. 05.75 to DWACRA groups and the vegetables prices are also skyrocketing. Apart from buying eggs these groups have to transport foods to various schools, which are located in remote places up to 35 KM from Diglipur bazaar and to the other Islands by water transport. Lots of eggs get damaged during this transportation.
Apart from this these eggs have to be boiled before distributing the same among children, which requires lots of Firewood and Kerosene Oil. After boiling more hands are needed to clean eggs.
In the Diglipur market eggs are available at Rs. 7/- in retail and last year in whole Andaman single rate was adopted by various schools but this year tender process adopted so many different rates.
Considering this the suppliers are finding it too difficult to supply eggs to school students and if this continues the suppliers will have to stop distribution of eggs to students, which will be a great loss to them.
In Andaman rate implementing authority for Mid- Day meal is the Principal Secretary Health. The local administration has to recommend amending prices for eggs or a supplementary price have to be released to bail out the suppliers for the time being as only three more months are left in this season. Subsequently a new method or rate can be adopted next year. For now the DWAKRA groups, which are already facing financial crunch, will be in deep soup.
the concerned authority should get tender from RSN for supply of eggs in Mid-Day-Meal for one complete session in these islands and then fix the amount of eggs supplied by different MDM supplier so that they do not get loss due to price hike of eggs.