padma shri ashok bhagat has been chosen as one of the members of the newly constituted central empowered committee on midday meal scheme in february the secretary of vikas bharti tells tois dhritiman ray about how manpower crisis is affecting the mdm scheme and about his ngos check dam initiative in the state excerptsyou were chosen as a committee member for your experience in the education sector what fallacies in the current mdm scheme especially in jharkhand one of the major hindrances in jharkhand is shortage of manpower there are schools in remote areas which have 100 or more students and only one teacher now these teachers are responsible for cooking and serving meals besides teaching as a result nutrient value of the the food served is being compromised the second major concern is hygiene since we have been working in 4000 schools for nearly two decades we have a firsthand knowledge the kitchens of most of the schools are dirty and the cooks lack basic sense of hygienewhat will be your recommendations when the newly constituted committee meets for the first timethe primary task of the committee is to monitor and assess the quality hygiene and safety of midday meals being served in schools across india there are many experienced people in the committee as a representative from jharkhand i will first study the models already in place in other states like tamil nadu on a personal note i strongly recommend the inclusion of seasonal fruits in mdm stronger emphasis should be laid on pulses and green vegetables to facilitate these schools must take up kitchen gardening to ensure yearlong supply of vegetables but these are my suggestions which i will place when the committee meets in my opinion the scheme is not a permanent solution yes it has improved attendance in rural india but the governments and society must ensure that every household has foodmoving on from mdm scheme tell us about vikas bhartis more recent endeavour the bora bandh initiative bora bandh or constructing temporary check dams with plastic bags filled with sands was started as an experiment at guniya village in ghagra block of gumla district in 2012 the model was successful this year we have extended the campaign which is largely a social awareness campaign in ranchi lohardaga and latehar districts the response from local villagers has been encouraging we have so far constructed 71 bora bandhs so far we have been experimenting with new ideas that deal with community mobilization another ongoing experiment is diverting spring water to the fields and villages for irrigation and drinking purposesthe union budget 2016 has laid emphasis on organic farming in india what prospects does it hold in jharkhandthe focus on organic farming is a welcome move we have been assisting farmers for years now in this sector jharkhand has done well in agriculture sector through the years without the usage of chemical fertilizers for the soil here is good we have a very good prospect in organic