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 the former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s vision to introduce mid-day meals to reduce dropout rates across the govt and aided schools, Adhikari said they wanted to deliver good quality nutritious food to the children to enhance their interest to attend schools.He said the proposal was discussed during the meeting with the Iskcon monks after the BJP govt 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 it 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 this 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 had sent our team to Odisha to see how they were functioning to provide boiled eggs separately. We accepted their veg meals and along with that, we will provide boiled eggs twice a week.” He announced no cook-cum-helper would lose their jobs.Adhikari inaugrated 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 of education dept and other depts were present. The CM had attended the inaugural ‘yajna’ on the first floor at the mega kitchen. He took part in the cooking as well. After completing his address, he participated in serving meals to the kids and sat with them to have the same meal. Students at nearby tables requested his signature and he kept their requests smilingly.The giant kitchen has the capacity of cooking meals for around 1.5 lakh at a time. Electric vehicles with GPS tracker to be monitored centrally have been launched. The cooked food will be carried in sealed containers and seals would be broken only after they reach the destination schools. AI-enabled dashboards inside the kitchen will help check quality and other parameters. Pritish Pal, a class 7 student of Arya Vidyamandir, was one of the 200 kids who participated at 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 veg and other items. All the items were tasty.”Mid-day meal menuRice /pulao/khichdiPaneer/chhanaSoyabean/seasonal veggies/ badamSweets/seasonal fruits
