Kolkata: The mid-day meal scheme through ISKCON rolled out from Saturday with a target to serve nutritious meals to more than two lakh students every day. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, from the programme dais, announced that every student where ISKCON serves mid-day meals will be provided boiled eggs separately twice a week.
Referring to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s vision to introduce mid-day meals to reduce dropout rates across government and aided schools, Adhikari said they wanted to deliver good-quality, nutritious food to children to enhance their interest in attending school.
He said the proposal was discussed during a meeting with ISKCON monks after the BJP government came to office.
“In the KMC area, from today, the programme starts with 44,000 students in 500 schools. Within the next three months, this programme will be extended and will cover 2.5 lakh students,” he added.
However, there are a few schools in north Kolkata that were on the list to receive mid-day meals but did not get them on time. ISKCON officials admitted this, stating that VIP security-related constraints delayed the dispatch of some vehicles, but said delivery schedules would be streamlined from Monday.
Pointing to the opposition that criticised the move, he said:
“The presence of the opposition is necessary in a democracy. From the very beginning they started shouting ‘egg’, ‘egg’. If you feel ashamed to talk to me, you can talk to the officials or you can talk directly to ISKCON. We also sent our team to Odisha to see how they were functioning to provide boiled eggs separately. We accepted their vegetarian meals and, along with that, we will provide boiled eggs twice a week.”
He also announced that no cook-cum-helper would lose their jobs.
Adhikari inaugurated the giant kitchen at Taratala on Saturday, where Chief Secretary Monoj Agarwal, CM’s adviser Subrata Gupta, School Education Minister Dipak Barman, and other officials from the education department and other departments were present.
The Chief Minister attended the inaugural yajna on the first floor of the mega kitchen. He also took part in the cooking. After completing his address, he served meals to the children and sat with them to eat the same meal. Students at nearby tables requested his autograph, and he happily obliged.
The giant kitchen has the capacity to cook around 1.5 lakh meals at a time. Electric vehicles equipped with GPS trackers, monitored centrally, have been launched. The cooked food will be transported in sealed containers, with the seals broken only after reaching the destination schools. AI-enabled dashboards inside the kitchen will help monitor quality and other parameters.
Pritish Pal, a Class 7 student of Arya Vidyamandir, was one of the 200 children who participated in the event.
“I have heard of ISKCON food quality and am hoping to get quality food as well as a tasty meal,” he said.
Suhana Khatun, a Class 7 student of Uchha Balika Vidyalaya, said:
“Today, we were given pulao, rice, paneer, mixed vegetables and other items. All the items were tasty.”
Mid-day Meal Menu
- Rice / Pulao / Khichdi
- Paneer / Chhana
- Soybean / Seasonal vegetables / Almonds (Badam)
- Sweets / Seasonal fruits
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/iskcon-mid-day-meal-kicks-off-for-44k-students-across-500-schools/articleshow/132795489.cms