Disclosing this to mediapersons here today, Punjab Education Minister Tota Singh said he had a meeting in this regard with Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi at New Delhi, yesterday.

Tota Singh said that he and his counterpart from Haryana had conveyed to the meeting to discontinue the mid-day meal scheme. A major chunk of the Centre government's 10 per cent finances which it spent on education goes for the mid-day-meal scheme.

It has been decided in the meeting that the grant which was being sent to the deputy commissioners of the states, would now be sent directly to the states' directorates of education, the Minister said.

Tota Singh said that despite their best efforts the government had failed to make this mid-day-meal scheme fool proof. He said the education department of the Punjab Government has been geared up to improve the state's literacy rate by refreshing its policies at primary level. The Punjab Government will soon make education up to eighth class compulsory, he added in the state.

He said stress would now be laid on improving the strength of each class instead of opening up new sections in the existing 1,200 government schools in the state.

The minister hinted that no teacher would be recruited in near future rather a stiff policy would be adopted to rationalise the ratio of teachers in urban and rural areas.

He said that representatives from Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Haryana and Punjab, held a meeting with the Union HRD Minister and discussed at length issues relating to education in their respective states.