During Lockdown, Tripura Govt Didn’t Provide Mid-Day Meal Food Grains to Any Child

The BJP government in Tripura, led by Biplab Kumar Deb, has not provided food to any child under the mid-day meal (MDM) scheme while the schools remained closed during the lockdown, according to documents accessed by The Reality under the Right to Information.

Given that a lack of proper nutrition weakens the immune systems, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had asked state governments and the administrators of Union Territories to ensure that children get their meals even though schools were closed due to the COVID-19 threat.

However, in Tripura, the state government did not provide meals to the children, but instead credited the accounts of students or their relatives with a lump sum that is less than the amount prescribed as the cost of cooking under the MDM scheme. 

In a letter dated April 6, 2020, the director of the Tripura elementary education department, Saju Vaheed A, asked the inspector of schools to transfer the cost for food grain and cost of cooking as prescribed under the MDM scheme at the directorate level into the accounts of all students or their parents.