The Telangana government on Friday rolled out the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme for students studying in government schools.
State ministers inaugurated the scheme at schools in various districts by having breakfast with the students.
The scheme, aimed at providing good nutritious food to the students along with quality education, will be implemented across the state later this month when the schools reopen after Dasara holidays.
About 23 lakh students studying in 67,147 government schools across the state will be served breakfast, said state minister for municipal administration and urban development K.T. Rama Rao, who launched the scheme at a school in West Marredpally in Secunderabad.
The breakfast for all students from Class 1 to 10 will be served 45 minutes before the commencement of classes.
The menu for the breakfast includes idli sambar, wheat rava, upma chutney, puri, aaloo khorma, tomato bhath, khichdi and pongal.
Minister for education Sabitha Indra Reddy inaugurated the scheme at a school at Ravirala in Rangareddy district. Home Minister Mahmood Ali launched the CM Breakfast Scheme in the Uppal area of Hyderabad.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced this scheme last month as Dasara gift. The scheme will cost an additional Rs 400 crore to the state exchequer annually.
The state government said that along with providing nutritious food to the students belonging to poor families, it is taking steps towards increasing their concentration on studies.
The scheme was launched keeping in view the difficulties faced by parents of students who are farm workers and leave their houses for work in the morning.
KCR had recently sent a team of IAS officers to examine implementation of the scheme in Tamil Nadu. A team of officers, who studied the breakfast scheme for students, submitted a report to the government. It was brought to the CM's attention that in Tamil Nadu it is being implemented only up to Class 5. KCR decided to introduce the scheme by covering high school students as well.
KTR said the implementation of the scheme has been entrusted to Manna Trust, which has a centralized kitchen in Uppal in Hyderabad with a capacity of two lakh meals.
He asked the municipal officials to ensure quality food and collect random samples and get them tested frequently.
(With inputs from IANS)
