A final directive has been issued to extend the duration of the 'School Feeding Programme' project for another six months, to distribute biscuits among government primary school students.
However, the project cost did not increase though the deadline was extended on the condition of adding new projects.
A directive in this regard was issued by the Planning Commission on Tuesday.
It said that the duration of the project titled 'School Feeding Program (3rd Amendment)' in poverty-stricken areas has been extended for the second time from July to December this year, subject to compliance with the Implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation Division’s (IMED) conditions and instructions.
With the surplus money of the project, highly nutritive biscuits will be distributed to 3 million primary students till next December.
As a condition, IMED should be informed by reviewing the school feeding activities, determining an effective model and verifying the results of the cost estimates and completing the work of formulating new project proposals within the extended period.
Meanwhile, at the ECNEC meeting on June 1 this year, the Prime Minister proposed to amend the DPP by not approving the ‘Primary School Mill Project’ of 'Khichuri Meal' for primary students. The new project was not approved and the biscuit distribution project expired on June 30.
Concerned officials say, it usually takes at least a year to revise the DPP of the new project.
At this time, the Department of Primary Education (DPE) sent a proposal to the ministry to extend the project for another year without increasing the cost due to the risk of malnutrition and dropout of 3 million students benefiting from the biscuit distribution project.
According to project sources, a packet of 75 grams of biscuits has been distributed to 3 million students in 104 poverty-stricken upazilas of the country since 2010 under the project. A packet of biscuit provides a student with 338 Kcal of energy per day.
The first phase of the project was implemented from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2014. The project was later revised and extended till December 31 last year. It was extended once again to June 30 this month.
The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 1,142.69 crore. Of this, GoB has funded Tk 597, 60 crore while Tk 545.09 crore came as project assistance.
