Patna: School teachers will soon be relieved from managing mid-day meal scheme, now known as Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN), for students of primary and secondary sections in Bihar. The state education department has decided to rope in Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide nutritious meals to them from its kitchen.
The state cabinet, chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar, recently cleared an education department’s proposal for allotting about 1.50 acre land at Naubatpur in Patna’s outskirts, to set up a highly sophisticated and mechanised kitchen to serve about 35,000-40,000 students everyday.
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Although the department had in 2021 signed an agreement with Akshaya Patra Foundation, a Bangalore-based non-profit organisation, to launch the service of preparing mid-day meals for schools located in Patna district under Pradhan Mantri Poshan Yojna, it did not take off. Officials said that the foundation could not set up its kitchen, as the land allotted to it in Danapur, actually belonged to the defence ministry and the state government did not own it.
A senior functionary of the foundation said that the construction of the kitchen was left mid-way owing to the land ownership issue. Moreover, the size of the land was also less than the requirement.
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To begin with, the foundation will start serving mid-day meal to the students of Patna district from its kitchen in Naubatpur. It will set up another kitchen if the need arose for preparing meals for more students.
Additional chief secretary, education, S Siddharth said that the teachers would be relieved of responsibility of spending their teaching time on non-teaching works. “Moreover, students will be getting more nutritious foods without spending extra bucks,” he added.
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An official of the foundation said that the meal menu entails an expenditure of ₹15 for preparing a quality meal for each student against the state government’s allocation of around ₹7-₹7.50 per student. “Although the foundation would provide more nutritious meals to the students, it will not charge anything extra from the state government for it. It will bear additional expenses under the PM Poshan Yojna,” he said, adding that a fresh memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed with the education department soon.
The state government provides mid-day meals to around 10.78 crore students enrolled in 42,573 primary schools and 25,587 middle schools across the state. Initially, Akshay Patra Foundation will start serving mid-day meals to schools in Patna. In the later phases, the service will be extended to schools of Madhubani and Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.
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Regarding the cooks already engaged in preparing the mid-day meals in schools, ACS Siddharth said they would continue serving there to serve meals, clean utensils and ensure that each and every student gets it properly.
