"Of course we will be talking to the Finance Ministry... They will examine it and get back to us," HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju told reporters here today.
His remarks came after Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor informed the Rajya Sabha that the Petroleum Ministry has turned down the request of allowing supply of subsidised LPG cylinders for the mid-day meal programme.
"The request of HRD Ministry has not been agreed to," Tharoor said in a written reply.
Raju noted that if the Finance Ministry does not provide the additional support, his ministry will have to meet from within its own resources.
"We have to work out making sure that the quality of the mid-day meal scheme is not compromised and I think we should be able to do it," he said.
Worried that the mid-day meal programme could be hit by the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had written to the Petroleum Ministry in October suggesting that it consider providing subsidised LPG cylinders for the current fiscal year.
He had also suggested that the decision on whether to make an exception for the scheme could be revisited at the time of finalising the Budget for 2013-14.
