Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday said that the government will provide eggs in mid-day meals along with the proposed ISKCON-cooked vegetarian meals in schools across Kolkata from August 1. This comes amid a controversy after the BJP government announced an overhaul of the mid-day meal scheme with its proposal to partner with ISKCON to provide cooked meals under a pilot project that would drop eggs from the menu.
Speaking to the media during a programme of the school education department at Nabanna, Adhiakri said, “From August 1, as a pilot project, ISKCON, will provide mid day meals in various schools in Kolkata. They will serve highly nutritious food to the students. Along with them, the state government, through SHG (Self Help Groups), will provide eggs to the students for protein. Odisha follows this model. ISKCON serves mid-day meals in 22 cities in the country.”
While presenting the BJP government’s first budget in the Assembly, Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta had announced the overhaul, significantly raising the material allocation per student and partnering with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to serve purely vegetarian meals in Kolkata schools as a pilot project. This led to a controversy, with the Opposition alleging that the government was promoting vegetarian food and depriving the students of protein.
Defending the decision in the Assembly, Adhikari had said, “We are giving the responsibility of cooking mid-day meals to ISKCON. ISKCON will cook food. If you have an objection, do not say ‘Hare Krishna’; no one will force you to do that. You will get good food to eat. You will get to eat pure food, nothing to worry about.”
Recently, the chief minister highlighted that allotment for each student even in the primary section for mid day meals has been increased to Rs 10 and that monthly wages for workers engaged with mid day meals in schools has been hiked from Rs 2000 to Rs 3000.
Meanwhile, Adhikari also announced a composite grant to schools in Bengal, after three years.
“The previous government deprived the schools of this valuable grant for the last three years. In this scheme, the Centre gives 60% of the funds and the state government gives 40%. Today, we gave Rs 296.64 crore to over 80,000 schools in the state. This will be helpful to the students. Since we have implemented the 2020 National Education Policy (NEP) we will benefit from central schemes,” Adhikari said.
The chief minister also stated that digital learning will be promoted in over 1200 schools in the state.
“In higher secondary schools we are including basic learning of Artificial Intelligence. We are also trying to go for audio visual learning in the schools,” he added.