Goas utilisation of the management, monitoring and evaluation (MME) funds under the midday meal programme continues to be low at 20% for the academic year 2020-21. TheMME fundsare provided by the central government to states to be able to evaluate implementation of themidday meal schemein their respective states and to improve the programmes delivery accordingly.
A team of officials from the Union Education ministry, after reviewing implementation of the midday meal scheme in Goa for 2020-21, expressed concern over the low utilisation of funds. As against the allocation of Rs 73.2 lakh of central assistance as MME funds, Goa has utilised only Rs 15 lakh or 20%.
Goas utilisation of the MME funds has not been low only during 2020-21 due to the pandemic. The state has been found to be lax in evaluating the scheme right from the early days of its implementation from 2004-05.
Funds allotted to Goa under MME by the Centre have consistently remained underutilised. Of the Rs 19.5 lakh allotted to Goa during 2010-11 as central assistance towards MME, the state utilised only Rs 10.2 lakh.
The utilisation by Goa was only 52% against the Union ministrys expected utilisation of 75%. This was even lower than the utilisation of 58% of the MME funds during 2009. A similar trend has continued over the years.