E-Paper
Now, 7 mid-day meal kitchens for govt schools in 1-km radius
The UT education department has instructed seven mid-day meal kitchens to cater to other government schools falling in one kilometre radius. For this, the administration has approved the budget. After receiving multiple complaints for CITCO mid-day meal food preparation, the education department has increased the per student payment.
The UT education department has instructed seven mid-day meal kitchens to cater to other government schools falling in one kilometre radius. For this, the administration has approved the budget. After receiving multiple complaints for CITCO mid-day meal food preparation, the education department has increased the per student payment.
CITCO has been instructed to provide healthy and nutritious food for government school students. On the other hand, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and Akshaya Patra kitchen projects, as had been reported by HT earlier, have been put on hold, sources said.
They have been put on hold to finalise the mid-day meal and seven school kitchens have been asked to cater to other schools in the vicinity too. One official of the department said that administration has approved the budget of Rs 24.14 lakh for seven mid-day meal kitchens’ requirement. Now these kitchens will purchase furnace, utensils and other items.
The department has instructed CITCO to provide healthy meal for government school students. Deputy DEO, Sukhneer Sekhon, said a letter had been sent to CITCO authorities on Friday. Before this, the department used to pay CITCO Rs 4.5 rupees plus VAT per student, but now the payment has been revised to Rs 7.2 rupees per child of primary wing and `9.17 rupees for upper primary .
Notably, seven government schools of the city have their own kitchens and cater mid-day meal to the students till Class 8 of their respective school only. Rest of the schools get their mid-day meal prepared from three outside Government providers, that is Shivalik View (a unit of CITCO), Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management, Sector 42 and Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management.
An official of the department said that the meals prepared in the kitchens of seven government schools is of good quality, instead of food being catered by outside sources.
But now the department has decided to reduce the quantum of work being outsourced to these three mid-day meal providers.
Director school education (DSE) Rubinderjit Singh Brar confirmed the development and said that CITCO mid-day meal payments have been increased for better serving of government school students. “We are, however, examining the Akshaya Patra and ISKCON proposals,” he added.
