The Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Authority, Uttar Pradesh, has begun collating data from districts regarding monthly cooking gas needs and other related details. This follows reports that some schools in the state are facing challenges serving mid-day meals due to the alleged irregular supply of LPG cylinders, according to officials. An official said this data would be forwarded to the Centre.
Officials also stated they sought data from district coordinators about monthly LPG cylinder consumption, the total number of schools serving MDM, and the number of enrolled students.
Monica Rani, the director general (school education), who also holds additional charge of the mid-day meal director, spoke to Neelam Anand, an official with the mid-day meal authority who maintains data on the number of cylinders used for the mid-day meal programme.
“In all 75 districts, basic shiksha adhikaris are in touch with the district supply officers and there has been no disruption in the supply of cylinders so far. The Central government is closely monitoring mid-day meal distribution. We provide hot cooked mid-day meals to 1.48 crore (14.8 million) students, which is equivalent to the total number of students enrolled in six to seven states combined,” Monica Rani said.
According to officials in Prayagraj district, approximately 3,200 schools, including government-run primary and upper primary schools of the Basic Education Council, as well as schools with Classes 1 to 8 run by state minority and social welfare departments, have a total enrolment of about 370,000 students. These schools require over 7,000 LPG cylinders monthly, according to details provided to the MDM authority on Thursday.
“This move is a proactive step to ensure that schools receive the LPG cylinders needed to cook the mid-day meal for students,” said a senior district official. Officials maintain that the LPG situation has not affected the mid-day meal programme in Prayagraj.
Rajeev Kumar Tripathi, the district coordinator of the mid-day meal scheme in Prayagraj, said the district supply officer has instructed that gas cylinders be provided to schools on priority. He said there is currently no difficulty of any kind in the schools.
Meanwhile, the Prayagraj district administration and the civil supply department have intensified efforts to ensure the uninterrupted availability of LPG cylinders.
Officials have contacted the area sales officers of the three major petroleum companies—Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited—regarding the supply of LPG cylinders in the district.
A total of 144 gas agencies have been placed on alert to ensure the timely distribution of domestic LPG cylinders to consumers.
District supply officer (Prayagraj) Sunil Singh said there is no shortage of domestic LPG cylinders in the district. He appealed to consumers to book their gas refills only through authorised LPG distributors, either via mobile phone or through the Smart Booking Mode app, and to obtain the refill by sharing the DAC (Delivery Authentication Code) with the delivery personnel.
He further clarified that a second refill will be available only 25 days after the previous one. Consumers have also been advised not to obtain LPG refills from any unauthorised person.
To address public concerns, a control room has been set up at the supply office, where residents can register complaints from 10am to 8pm. Officials said all complaints will be recorded in a register and reported daily to the district supply officer for necessary action.
