Congress leader Motilal Vohra, in Rajya Sabha, raised the issue of making aadhaar card compulsory by saying that under the mid-day meal scheme government has made it necessary. He also said that almost 12 crore children are enrolled under the mid-day meal scheme and it looks like the government is looking forward to take away the free food from them.
Proving the Motilal Vohra's accusations wrong, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said that all beneficiaries enrolled under the mid-day meal scheme will get the benefits of the mid-day meal and government will make sure that they also get the 12 digit UID.
"I want to tell this House that no one will be deprived of mid-day meals. Everybody will get mid-day meal and they will get Aadhaar card as well," the Minister said.
He said that large number of beneficiaries if not majority of them have the aadhaar cards and facilities will made to enroll the remaining students under the UID scheme as well and in cases where it is not possible to create Aadhaar card facilities, UIDs will be provided to the students by the state government.
Earlier in a bid to ensure the transparency and increased efficiency in mid-day meal scheme, HRD ministry had made the Aadhaar card mandatory for the school children.
The mid-day meal is a school meal program by the government of India to make sure that school going children receives the proper nutrition value nationwide.