UP Govt Removes Village Heads From Mid-Day Meal Management; Teacher Posting Decisions Trigger Fresh Row

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has introduced a major change in the management of the Mid-Day Meal scheme in state -run schools by removing pradhans (village heads) from the operation of the programme and its financial management.

School Management Committees to Oversee Scheme

An order issued by the Directorate General of School Education states that the scheme will now be jointly managed by the chairman of the School Management Committee (SMC), who is a parent of a student, and the headmaster of the school. Earlier, the Mid-Day Meal scheme and its bank account were jointly operated by the village head and the headmaster.

Under the revised arrangement, the SMC chairman and the headmaster will also jointly operate the account for payment of honorarium to cooks and the contingency grant provided for preparing meals under the scheme.

Village Heads Oppose Government's Decision

The decision has drawn strong opposition from organisations representing village heads. Lalit Sharma, state president of the National Panchayati Raj Gram Pradhan Organisation, said elected village heads continue to function as administrators even after the expiry of the tenure of panchayats. He alleged that excluding them from the Mid-Day Meal scheme amounts to curtailing their powers. The organisation has demanded that the government withdraw the order and restore the earlier system.

Meanwhile, another decision of the state government regarding postings in the Secondary Education Department has also sparked criticism.

Male Principal's Appointment to Girls' College Opposed

After a long wait, the department issued fresh postings for 326 Group B teachers and officers who were recently promoted. However, the appointment of Kailash Yadav as principal of the Government Girls Inter College in Dhanupur, Prayagraj, has been opposed by the Government Secondary Teachers' Association.

In a representation to Additional Chief Secretary for Basic and Secondary Education Parth Sarathi Sen Sharma, the association urged the government not to appoint male cadre officers as principals of Government Girls Inter Colleges. Provincial General Secretary Arun Yadav and Provincial Patron Rameshwar Pandey said such appointments should be avoided.

The association also objected to the posting of several promoted officers in institutions under the Basic Education section, arguing that many government secondary schools across the state are functioning without regular principals. It demanded that officers posted in the Basic Education wing be reassigned to fill vacant principal posts in government secondary schools.

The teachers' body further alleged irregularities in the functioning of Government Girls Inter College, Manikpur in Chitrakoot, and Government Girls Inter College, Musafirkhana in Amethi due to the absence of regular women principals. It claimed that the Chitrakoot institution has been functioning without a regular principal for the past 12 years and urged the government to fill the vacancies at the earliest.