new delhi nearly six months after 23 school children died consuming midday meal in bihar the hrd ministry has finally found time to hold the meeting of the empowered committee that was set up in the aftermath of the tragedy the meeting of the mammoth empowered committee that has representatives from more than ten ministries and departments and ngos will be held on february 4 note for the meeting admits that kitchencumstores continue to be a cause of concern hrd ministry had circulated a design of the kitchencumstore to all the states for safe storage of food cooking of midday meal in hygienic environment and a place for washing hands by the students so far construction has been completed for 65 lakh kitchencumstores out of sanctioned 10 lakh but the work on construction of kitchencumstores has not started in 91 sanctioned kitchencumstores in andhra pradesh 67 in kerala 62 in manipur 49 in tamil nadu and maharashtra 36 in jharkhand 31 in haryana 27 in uttarakhand and 21 in bihar as for procurement of pulses seasonal vegetables salt and condiments edible oils and fuel only the state governments of maharashtra odisha punjab are procuring and supplying ingredients through the state public state undertakings hrd ministry has advised other states to follow the same mechanism for supply of quality agmark pulses edible oils and condiments for mdm to ensure nutritional food for the children in order to train cooks help of ministry of tourism was taken so far institutes of hotel management ihms and the food craft institutes have trained cookcumhelpers in punjab haryana chandigarh goa odisha uttarakhand tamil nadu kerala dadra nagar haveli separately ngos have trained 470 cookcumhelpers in five states hrd ministry is also seeking cooperation of other ministries in strengthening mdm for instance in the construction of kitchencumstore funds will be sourced from rural development ministrys sampurna grameen rozgar yojana in rural areas from urban wage employment programme a component of swarna jayanti shahri rozgar yojana for urban areas outside slums for water supply and sanitation funds can be sourced from national rural drinking water programme for rural drinking water and nirmal bharat abhiyan for rural sanitation for kitchen devices funds from sarva shiksha abhiyan can be sourced