Aadhar is must for mid-day meals

New Delhi, March 04: In Present days, Aadhar has become an essential to get any service from the government. Here is the Indian govt has been announced that "To receive midday meals, Aadhar is mandatory for students across the country".

It applies to all the students across the country and the HRD(Ministry of Human Resource Development) ministry had released a notification regarding the same on February 28. This will not be mandatory for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Assam and Meghalaya.

The HRD notification read that Aadhar is not only limited for identity purpose but it simplifies the work of the government to provide direct entitlements. June 30 is the last date fixed for students to enroll themselves. The ministry claims that with this move transparency and efficiency will be at a greater level.

A senior HRD official was quoted by Hindustan Times saying,"A notification will be sent to schools across the nation that students who wish to avail the benefits of Midday meal need to have a valid Aadhaar number."

The official further went on to add that even the cook and the helpers need to possess a valid Aadhar card as they will also be benefited under this scheme.

Midday meal scheme was launched in 1995 and provides lunch to the students enrolled in government schools across India. But it has had a long history in India.

In 1925, a Mid-Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid-1980s three States viz.

Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a cooked Mid Day Meal Programme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage By 1990-91 the number of States implementing the mid-day meal programme with their own resources on a universal or a large-scale had increased to twelve states.