State Fund of Rs. 93.66 crore has been released for purchase of Thalis / Plates to the A/c. of MDM implementing agencies through RTGS system.
Allotment of fund of Rs. 29.72 crore has already been given from state exchequer for construction of dining halls (969) in Jungle-Mahal and Sundarban areas. Besides above, 1540 dining halls have been constructed at different districts with the help of local administration / local contribution / MP LAD etc.
State Government has allowed Rs. 500/- as additional honorarium per month per Cook cum helper since October, 2013.
Arrangement of Hand washing before and after meal has been made in each and every school.
The system of tasting of cooked food by one teacher and one cook prior to distribution to the students in the school has already been strictly introduced and it is being properly complied with. A register is being maintained for recording the quality of the food and the names of the MDM tasters who taste the food.
Social Audit is a programme monitored by the people and the Government jointly. Calcutta University has already been engaged for this purpose. They are now visiting the districts for field work.
Muraliganj High School under Siliguri Sub-division has been judged as the best school for implementing Mid-day meal by the Govt. of India. Hand washing and cooking methods are main qualities maintained by this school. The cook-cum-helpers are cooking by wearing apron and mask and all the cooked food are kept in covered utensils. The delicious hot cooked foods are being served to the children after washing their hands properly. CCTV cameras have been installed in the kitchen shed and the place where Mid-day meals are served. The Head master monitors this programme personally in every day and one regular teacher & one Para Teacher are deputed to maintain the whole programme systematically. Representatives from different countries like Afghanisthan , Phillipines, Canada, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc. visited the school to observe the implementation of Mid-day meal scheme by this school. The school has already received various awards like 1)“Jamini Roy Award“(state level most prestigious award first in North Bengal) 2). “Sishu Mitra Vidhyalaya award” (District level) 3) “Nirmal Vidhyalaya award “(Block level) for proper implementation of Cooked mid-day meal Programme. Krishna Chandrapur High School of Diamond Harbour Sub-division under South 24Parganas district has made elaborate arrangement of some good practices to enrich efficacy of MDM scheme. Low cost effective gas based cooking has been introduced. CCTV has been installed in the school to oversee the works and activities of different items from one place i.e. room of the headmaster. The school has well-furnished kitchen, proper sanitation system, separately for boys and girls, kitchen garden, well-furnished dining hall, fire extinguisher system. The said school serves egg with MDM twice a week to the students.
Sankrail block of West Medinipur made arrangement for procurement of model hygiene kit centrally to be distributed to all schools within its jurisdiction. This will ensure safe practices which is also a motto of Nirmal Bharat Abhijan. This practice will soon be replicated throughout the district.
Golapbag primary school of Birbhum district grow vegetables in the kitchen garden of the school and utilize the vegetables in Mid-Day-Meal. Vidyasagar G.S.F.P. Vidyalaya under Taherpur, Nadia district Solar System is used for heating water for Cooking Mid-Day-Meal.
Besides this, in some schools Model Dining Hall is constructed to facilitate the Children to have their meals in good manner. Community members often contribute their agricultural produce to this programme. Utensils were also provided by the people of the locality where the number of students is high.
Admirable effort has been taken by the district, Hooghly for training of the Cook cum Helpers. They are trained how to cook healthy, tasty and nutritious food within the approved cost limit and how to maintain hygiene as well as to take safety measures while cooking Mid-day Meal with the help of SIMS School of Hotel Management, Burdwan during the month of November, 2014. Altogether 2700 Cook cum helpers and 1000 teachers were trained by this programme.
System of imparting suitable training on MDM scheme to the District Inspector of schools of Secondary & Primary and the new batch of Inspectors and Sub-inspectors of schools has been introduced in the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) of Govt. of West Bengal at Salt Lake, Kolkata.
Baseline survey on nutrition level of school students of all districts has been conducted by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (West Bengal Unit) and they have submitted reports. A total of 12020 students from Primary and 12091 students from Upper Primary schools from 20 educational district participated in the study.
(Source : AWP&B- 2016-17 State write up)