The West Bengal government has sought district administrations to fix the menu for midday meals in state-run schools. This comes after it was slammed for serving only boiled rice and salt to students of a girls’ school in Hooghly district.
Kolkata: The West Bengal government has sent a circular to all district administrations for a fixed menu for midday meals in state-run schools, an official said on Saturday.
The move for the fixed menu comes days after a school in Hooghly district was found offering only boiled rice and salt to students.
The School Education department in the circular sent to all district administrations instructed them to strictly stick to the menu and also gave a chart which specified which day of the week each type of food will be served, the official said.
Fish or egg should be served in the midday meal twice in a week. Soya bean and vegetables should be served on the other days, the circular said.
It said rice, dal, potato and vegetable curry would be served on Monday; rice, dal, egg or fish curry on Tuesday; rice, dal, mixed vegetables on Wednesday.
It said rice, fish or egg curry, vegetables will be served on Thursday while rice dal, potato curry will be served on Friday, and rice dal, soya bean and potato curry on Saturday.
All officials in-charge of midday meals have been asked to instruct all local level officers, education supervisors to visit schools from August 24 to August 31 to monitor activities to ensure that the midday meal is provided in a proper manner to students.
After the school in Hooghly district was found serving students only boiled rice and salt, education minister Partha Chatterjee had said that the state government will do everything to ensure children get the proper kind of midday meal and that there will be "zero tolerance" to any attempt to deprive children of their prescribed midday meal menu.
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