Saturday, 1 March 2014 Agency: PTI
In a significant order, the Bombay High
Court has asked the Maharashtra
Government not to impose the burden of
managing mid-day meal scheme for
students on teachers, calling it "non-
educational work".
Putting such non-teaching responsibility
on teachers would amount to violation of
section 27 of the Education Act, a division
bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka ruled
on Thursday. Section 27 provides that "no
teacher shall be deployed for any non-
educational purposes other than the
decennial population census, disaster
relief duties or duties relating to elections
to the local authority or the State
Legislatures or Parliament, as the case
may be", the court noted.
The court was hearing a bunch of
petitions filed by women's organisations
challenging two Government Resolutions
regarding implementation of the mid-day
meal scheme. The court referred to the
State Government guidelines dated July
22, 2013 which provide that the
headmasters or the senior teachers shall
visit central kitchens (where meals are
prepared) in urban areas once a month to
ensure hygiene.
Teachers are supposed to taste the food
before it is served to the students every
day. "The said duties entrusted to the
head masters/teachers have nothing to do
with education. The scheme may be a
welfare measure adopted by the state but
teachers cannot be burdened with non-
educational work," said the judges.
The High Court also directed the state
Government to create, within a month, an
independent authority consisting of expert
agencies for periodical supervision of
central kitchens in urban areas to ensure
quality of the food.
However, the court refused to interfere
with the policy decisions which were a
part of the Government Resolutions under
the challenge. "The challenge to the
Government Resolutions dated 18th June,
2009 and 2nd February, 2011 has no
merit and the same is rejected.
Accordingly, the challenge to the decision
(notified in the GR) to establish central
kitchens in urban areas is also rejected,"
the bench ruled. However, we direct the
state government to ensure that no
teacher including head master shall be
deployed for any work in connection with
the implementation of the mid-day meal
scheme including the job of visiting the
central kitchens and the job of tasting the
food and maintaining a register," the High
Court said.
The state government has been asked to
file a compliance report by April. The
Central Government introduced the mid-
day meal scheme in 1995 for providing
nutritious food to the school children.
In June 2009, Maharashtra Government
introduced 'central kitchens' in urban
areas for supplying cooked food to school
children. The petitions challenged this, as
earlier the contract to supply food was
given to local women's groups.
0 comments:
Post a comment