The move, a first, comes after receiving a number of complaints related to poor quality meals and dereliction of duty by gram pradhaans.

“On our recent visit to schools, it was found that the mid-day meal was either not being cooked properly or the pradhaans had not provided meals to children over the last few days,” said Santosh Rai, Additional Director, Mid-Day Meal Authority (MDM).

“Parents can inform us about such instances and it will help us penalise such pradhaans. The jingles will thus help in making the community aware about their rights to avoid such instances in future,” added Rai.

To ensure better implementation of the scheme, the MDM authority will soon reach out to its stakeholders at the grassroots level to educate them about their rights and increase their involvement.

The MDM had outsourced the project and four jingles have been developed with the help of the State Institute of Education and Training (SIET), the duration of which is 30 seconds each. In the first phase, the jingles will be aired on FM radio channels in Lucknow.

Later, it will be extended to other cities with the help of All India Radio in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Rampur, Nadibabad, Allahabad and Agra. Short video clips on the jingles will also be aired on television.

“We have decided to give out our message through radio, as it is one of the cheapest medium and is easily available even in villages. So, with the help of the jingles, we will be able to reach out to the masses,” said Rai.

“The jingles have specially been designed keeping the stakeholders at grassroot level in mind. Through jingles, we will inform people about the duties of gram pradhaans.”