Aizawl: Thousands of students in primary and middle schools of Mizoram may stop receiving midday meals due to the government’s failure to provide sufficient funds.
The Primary School Teachers’ Association (MPSTA) and the Mizoram Middle School Teachers’ Association (MMSTA) have recently written to the state school education department director informing him that they will stop providing midday meals to students from October 18 due to non-payment of honorarium for cooks and cooking costs by the government.
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The two Mizoram school teachers associations in their letter stated that even though they desire to continue providing midday meals to the students, they are no longer in a position to do so as the government has failed to pay the cooking costs and honorarium of cooks.
Representatives of the associations said that remuneration of cooks has not been paid for four months.
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“We discussed the matter with Education Minister Vanlalthlana on September 17 and also met the education department director on the issue, but to no avail,” they said.
The government had raised the honorarium of cooks from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per month from the 2024 academic session.
However, honorarium only for April and May was disbursed in early October, after the teachers associations threatened to discontinue the programme from October 1.
The associations urged the government to address the issues on or before October 18.
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Meanwhile, school education department director Lalsangliana said that the department is in constant touch with the teachers associations to resolve the issue.
He said that the government has been facing difficulty as the Centre is yet to release the first instalment of funds for midday meals under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) programme for the current academic session.