The Telangana government launched a unique scheme for all government school students where they would be provided breakfast before the start of school. ‘Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme’ was officially launched across the State in select schools on Friday. It would be extended to all the government-run schools, for students of classes 1 to 10, after the Dasara vacation.
Finance Minister, T. Harish Rao, Information and Public Relations Minister, Patnam Mahender Reddy and Education Minister, Sabitha Indra Reddy launched the scheme at the Zilla Parishad High School in Raviryala in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district on Friday morning. The scheme was launched simultaneously in select schools by the Ministers and MLAs in all 119 constituencies. After launching the scheme, the Ministers relished the breakfast along with students.
Mr. Harish Rao said that 20 lakh students would benefit from it and Telangana was the only state to offer breakfast for school students from Class 1 to 10. He hoped that this would bring revolutionary change in school education as students could focus on education due to the nutritious food. Most of the children enrolled in government schools come from low-income groups and this would help parents also to send children to school on time without worrying about their food.
Ms. Sabitha Indra Reddy said that the scheme will help students get nutritious food every day and also stem dropouts. She said that she had realised during a meeting with the officials that only two students out of every 10 students have breakfast while the rest come to schools on empty stomach. She thanked the Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for understanding the pain of such students.
She also said that the mid-day meal scheme covers students from Classes 1 to 8 across the country, but the Telangana government extended this benefit to students from Classes 9 and 10 as well. Jaggery is also provided to improve the iron content.
As per the menu announced by the government, two breakfast options have been prepared that include a combination of Idly, Sambar, Pongal, Poori, Upma, Vegetable Pulao and Wheat Upma apart from Sambar and Chutney.
Government sources said that the scheme will benefit more than 23 lakh students in 28,000 odd schools, including the aided, model, and madrasas run by the Education Department. In urban areas, the job has been entrusted to the Akshaya Patra Foundation while self-help groups will prepare in rural areas. About Rs.400 crore is expected to be incurred every year for the scheme.
Minister K.T. Rama Rao attended the programme at a government school in West Marredpally. He had puri and curry with the students after the launch. Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar launched it in Khammam.
