Kolkata: Several schools in and around Kolkata are keeping alternative fuel arrangements ready amid the LPG crisis to continue with their midday meal services.Krishnachandrapur High School switched to wood-fired stoves on Tuesday by setting up two mud chulhas in the open air outside the school premises. Headmaster Chandan Maiti said: “We require 30 LPG cylinders per month, but it is becoming very difficult to get the stock. We contacted the LPG dealer, but they could not assure us of the supply. We have informed the district inspector’s office. Whatever the situation, we cannot stop midday meals. So we shifted to wood-fired stoves.” The headmaster of Rani Rasmoni High School, Syed Mohsin Imam, said that their cooked meals came from a community kitchen, which sent boiled eggs for the students on Tuesday. Not only this school, but 65 schools in the city that receive cooked midday meals from a north Kolkata-based community kitchen were given only boiled eggs instead of the scheduled menu because of the cylinder crisis.Indranil Mukherjee, joint treasurer of the Global Health Foundation Trust, which runs the community kitchen, admitted that the change in menu was only because of the crisis. He said, “We require four cylinders per day, but today we had only two. So, after speaking with education department officials, we cooked boiled eggs and supplied them to the schools.”Several schools that have their own cooking arrangements are facing difficulties as the price of commercial LPG increased to Rs 2,100. In this situation, some schools are paying extra from the school fund to get fuel. Mitra Institution (Main) bought a commercial cylinder by paying Rs 200 extra. The school’s headmaster, Sayantan Das, said, “We need two cylinders a week, but right now only one is left, with which we can continue cooking for another two days. But after that, we do not know what will happen.”The headmistress of Santoshpur Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyapith, Sarbani Sen, expressed concern as their gas booking failed. They can continue cooking only for two more days with the existing supply.
