UP pushes deadline for ‘no midday meal without Aadhaar’ to July 31

MEERUT: Nearly a month after UP government authorities said students of government-run primary schools will not get midday meals if they do not have an Aadhaar card after July 1, the authorities have now pushed the deadline to July 31.
In Meerut alone, only 40% students have Aadhaar cards so far while for the remaining students camps are being set up to help them make their cards.Statistics revealed that out of a total of 1.73 lakh students in 1,561 schools, only 85,000 regularly attend school. Out of these, some 34,000 students have Aadhaar cards, according to officials.
Not just in Meerut, rate of Aadhaar enrolment of students of primary schools in UP is extremely low. In fact, primary education officers of Meerut, Hapur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Kannauj, Farrukhabad and Kanpur (rural) were sent reminders in June to submit the list of students with Aadhaar cards.
“The state government has extended the deadline to July 31. We are in the process of making Aadhaar cards for all the students and it will be done before July 31 so that the students do not have to stay without midday meals,” said Mohd. Iqbal, basic shiksha adhikari, Meerut.
In May-end, the UP government had issued a government order to all basic shiksha adhikaris, instructing them to get Aadhaar cards made for all the midday meal beneficiaries in the state so that the scheme is not affected.
The GO had warned that if the Aadhaar cards for all the midday meal beneficiaries are not made and their numbers not submitted to the state government, the authorities concerned would be held responsible for it.
However, the procedure of making Aadhaar cards hit a road block as schools were closed for summer break at that time. They reopened on July 1. Now, the Aadhaar card camps have started functioning again.
“The camps to get Aadhaar cards have started again. During the summer break, the task was next to impossible because we could have asked teachers to come to school to help in making Aadhaar cards but we couldn’t have forced students to come during the holidays,” said Rakesh (who goes by his first name), midday meal coordinator, Meerut.