No weekly fruits for students in mid-day meals amid fund crunch

A year after launching its initiative with much fanfare, the Punjab Mid-Day Meal Society (PMMS) is grappling with financial constraints, making it difficult to continue serving seasonal fruits to 19 lakh government school students across the state.

- Vishal Joshi

BATHINDA: Citing a shortage of funds, the society has indicated that it may have to discontinue fruit distribution from the next academic session.

According to official data, there is an unusual pattern in the fruit distribution schedule under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) scheme. The designated fruit distribution days often coincide with months having the highest number of school holidays.

While PMMS authorities insist this is not a coincidence, they admit that days with maximum holidays were deliberately chosen to distribute fruits to save on costs.