Hyderabad, July 10^th: Rise in prices of the essential commodities, particularly rice and dal is showing impact on the midday meal scheme, which is now feeding 80 lakh school children. Suppliers of midday meal schemes, including self help groups in villages have sent an SOS to the government stating that they were finding difficult to stick to the rate of Rs 3.25 per meal with the increasing prices. Since it is an amalgamated scheme of the central and state governments the authorities are also in a fix. Unless the center comes to its rescue, the state government will not be able to increase the budget for the mid-day meal.

For each meal costing Rs 3.25, the center provides Rs 1.58 per meal and the state bears Rs 1.67. Midday meal comprises of rice, sambar or puliihora, egg twice a week or banana is provided to students of all government schools studying in class I to VIII. It costs Rs 514 crore annually to provide midday meal to 50.73 lakh primary students and Rs 19 lakh to upper primary students. Out of the total amount the center provides Rs 281 crore and the state bears the remaining 233 crore.

Despite the center’s refusal to bear the cost, the state government provides midday meals to 13.53 lakh students belonging to class IX and X too. The total costs of the scheme comes to around Rs 718 crore annually. The additional director of school education, Dr J. Vidyasagar Rao, said that the demand to enhance the cost per meal was genuine.