Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Tuesday said that mid-day meals will be provided to students even during summer vacations in schools.
“During lockdown, ration is being provided under mid-day meals for the children to get adequate and nutritious food,” he said.
“Approval is being given for providing mid-day meal during summer holidays of schools, on which an additional expenditure of about 1600 crores will be made,” he added.
“In addition, under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, an Ad-hoc grant of Rs 2500 crore is being issued for the first quarter,” he added.
“In wake of COVID-19, the annual central allocation of cooking cost (for procurement of pulses, vegetable, oil, spices and fuel) under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is enhanced to Rs. 8100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore ( an increment of 10.99 per cent),” he added.
During a meeting held by videoconferencing with the state education ministers, Pokhriyal also said that the process of evaluation of answer sheets of board exams must be started and facilitate CBSE to evaluate answer sheets of the students in their respective States.
He also said that various efforts are being made to strengthen the online education platforms like DIKSHA, Swayam, SwayamPrabha, Vidyadaan 2.0, E-Pathshala, Educational TV Channel of Doordarshan, DishTV, Tata Sky, Jio, Airtel DTH etc.