Sibal speaks to Reddy on LPG usage for mid-day meal programme

"I have spoken to the Petroleum Minister (Jaipal Reddy) ... The issue will be certainly addressed," Sibal told reporters here while admitting that the cap on subsidised cylinders will increase the burden on the mid-day meal programme.

He said either the Finance Minister has to "give us additional funding to run the scheme or the Petroleum Minister continues to provide subsidised cylinder for the programme".

Sibal said they were in talks with the Petroleum Ministry even before the political parties had raised the issue.

In a letter to Petroleum Secretary G C Chaturvedi last month, Additional Secretary in the HRD Ministry Amarjit Singh had requested that necessary instructions be issued to public sector oil marketing companies for supply of LPG cylinders to schools for mid day meal scheme at subsidised rates.

The ministry has projected that with the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, the expenditure on LPG would jump from Rs 653 crore to Rs 1306 crore annually, which would be 11.6 per cent of the total allocation for the mid-day meal programme.

For the current year, the total allocation for the programme is Rs 11,937 crore.

Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Nagaland, Haryana, Tripura, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli are some of the states and Union territories where more then 60 per cent of the schools are using cylinders.

The current usage for the country as a whole stands at about 40 per cent. The cooking cost comprises 60 per cent of the total recurring cost of the scheme.