However, activists have raised concerns over the new scheme and instead sought strict regulation and a check on the irregularities in the existing noon meal programme. Ilamaran, State President of Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association, said the noon meal workers were underpaid and the funds allocation to the programme had remained static for a decade now. “We are surveying the requirements across the State,” said a senior official from the Department of Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme. If the new scheme comes into place, their workload will increase and so will that of school headmasters. A senior teacher from a Government High School at Anna Nagar here said they were cooking noon meals for 300 children on a woodstove.

Source: The Hindu July 04, 2016 00:04 UTC