Students of government-run primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, who do not have an Aadhaar card, will not be able to get midday meal after June 30.
List of students
The direction from the State government comes three months after the Union Human Resource Development Ministry made Aadhaar cards mandatory for midday meals and asked UP schools to make a list of students who possess the cards.
“The government has directed the basic education officers in all the districts to ensure that every beneficiary of the midday meal has an Aadhaar card so that the scheme doesn’t get affected. If Aadhaar cards for all beneficiaries of the midday meal scheme are not made and their numbers not submitted to the State government, then the students without such cards will not be able to benefit from the different schemes of the government. And you will be held responsible for that,” warned a letter written by Director, Basic Education, Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh, addressed to primary education officers.
The present rate of Aadhaar enrolment of students of primary schools in the State is extremely low.
In Meerut for instance, of a total of 1.73 lakh students in 1,561 schools, only about 29,000 students have Aadhaar cards, which comes to less than 17 %.
Schools puzzled
The direction has left the school authorities puzzled as schools have closed for vacation and will reopen only on July 1.
The letter by Mr. Singh has asked all the primary education officers to submit a list of students who possess Aadhaar cards to the State government by May 30. Mr. Singh has sent a reminder to the primary education officers of Meerut, Hapur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Kannauj, Farrukhabad and Kanpur (rural) as they have not yet sent the list to the government.
Officials helpless
Most officials who handle the midday meal scheme have expressed their helpless in the face of the ultimatum. A coordinator for the midday meal scheme in Meerut said with primary schools closed for vacations, it would be almost impossible to follow the direction.
‘Students out of town’
“Schools have closed for vacations and most children have gone out of town. Teachers can be asked to help the students get their Aadhaar cards made, but the challenge is how to make cards for students who are out of town,” he said.
