Lucknow: Under the PM Poshan Yojana, run to provide mid-day meals to the students in the government schools of the state, the Yogi government has succeeded in utilizing 80 percent of the total available amount so far in the financial year 2024-25.
A total amount of more than Rs 686 crore was available under the PM Poshan Yojana, including the central and state share, against which the Yogi government allocated a total amount of more than Rs 667 crore to all the districts till October 12. In this, an expenditure of Rs 540.66 crore was made till October 12, which is 78.82 percent of the total available amount.
It is known that the Central Government has approved the ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Yojana’ to provide hot cooked food in government and government-aided schools. This scheme will replace the existing National Program of Mid-Day Meal Scheme in schools.
It has been launched for an initial period of five years (2021-22 to 2025-26). Under this, in a recent review meeting led by the Chief Secretary, it has also been decided to provide additional supplementary nutrition to all the students studying in the schools covered under the scheme.
In 2024-25, an amount of Rs 2198.27 crore has been approved by the Payment Approval Board (PAB) for items like food cost, conversion cost, cook honorarium, transportation cost and MME under the PM Poshan Yojana. Under this, Rs 280.83 crore of the last financial year remains, while Rs 405.14 crore has been released by the Government of India.
In this way, a total of Rs 686.97 crore is available with the state government for the scheme. Out of this amount, an amount of Rs 667.77 crore has been allocated to all the districts by the state government till October 12, while the districts have spent Rs 540.66 crore out of the amount allocated for providing cooked hot food to the students. The State Government has been requested to release the second installment for the implementation of the scheme.
