The nutritious noon-meal programme in Tamil Nadu is to be brought under closer scrutiny with the help of an external agency.
Planned as part of the nationwide social audit, the exercise will cover Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts, where the programme benefits roughly two lakh schoolchildren.
A consultant from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras will study the working of the programme. Besides, the Department of Evaluation and Applied Research (DEAR), a wing of the State government, is likely to be involved in the exercise as it last year studied the impact of variety meals ( kalavai satham ) provided to beneficiaries in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Nagapattinam districts, says an official.
At the State-level, variety meals are being provided to 92,000 children at the rate of one block in each district. The social audit is aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency in the implementation of the scheme and at monitoring the quantity and quality of foodgrains, preparation of food and the quality of food served to the children. Apart from Tamil Nadu, the audit will be carried out in Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
The official here points out that in Tamil Nadu, the concept of social audit is not new as the implementation of the programme came up for scrutiny at gram sabha meetings. This is because noon-meal organisers, cooks and cook assistants have been drawn from village panchayats.
