Agartala, February 14 (TIWN): Recently 5, 22,551 students were covered under Midday Meal from Standard-I to Standard VII. Among them, 3lakhs 34 thousand 218 students were under primary unit and in Higher Secondary Unit students covered to be 1lakh 88thousand 253. In a reply to the question raised by MLA Manoranjan Acharjee and Manindra Chandra Das, Minister Tapan Chakraborty had informed this Friday.

  However, in the year 2014-15, the estimated amount allotted for midday meal is scheduled as 33 crore 73 lakh 63 thousand rupees. Despite the high amount of money allotted for the midday meal, lower grade had been served to the student which has affected these small ones. Tripura administration has already issued fresh direction to the teachers and inspectors of the schools that before distributing mid-day meals among the school children, it has to be tested by the responsible teachers in each school. Health official’s sources said that said traces of toxic chemicals were found in the soyabean, while the oil used contained wild-seed extracts. The school's food in-charge procured 200gm soyabean from a local shop.

 The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme of the Government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in Government, Government Aided, Local Body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and Alternate Innovative Education Centers, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Child Labour Project schools run by the Ministry of Labour. Serving 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centers, it is the largest such programme in the world.