Kolkata: The govt would procure eggs for midday meals at state schools but the logistics would be decided later, school education minister Dipak Barman indicated on Thursday at Bikash Bhavan.Barman declined to elaborate on the logistics as chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had already declared that an egg would be served to schoolchildren, along with the midday meals to be provided by Iskcon. The new programme will be launched on Saturday in Taratala, where 200 children from city state schools will participate. Iskcon has set up a kitchen in Taratala, where vegetarian meals will be prepared, and another one is being set up in Bagbazar.An official said the process of procuring eggs was likely to remain the same, under which self-help groups (SHGs) were paid an advance to buy the protein. CM Adhikari announced on Wednesday that existing self-help groups involved in serving midday meals would be put in charge of distributing eggs.A spokesperson for an SHG said, “Five of the 65 schools, where we served midday meals for around 1,200 students, have asked us to discontinue our services from Saturday. If we are to supply eggs to these schools along with the ones where we continue working, we need instructions on if the eggs should be boiled before being sent to schools, for how many days a week and for how long.”Under the previous system, children received eggs in their midday meals once or twice a week. Under the new system, it was initially decided that two boiled eggs would be given twice a week.More than 2 lakh children across 1,851 state schools in Kolkata receive midday meals every day. Under the previous scheme, self-help groups are paid by the state, the egg cost included in the budget. Once the new system rolls out, both Iskcon and SHGs are supposed to operate simultaneously initially though SHG members are still waiting for a clear written order from the state govt.SHG members pointed out supplying eggs alone would not be cost-effective. “Earlier, serving full meals to large numbers of students at 30-40 schools was cost-effective for us but only supplying boiled eggs will not give us the same margin. We hope the details will be clarified before the new system rolls out,” the member said.
