Akshaya Patra mid-day meal rollout begins in Kolkata; several schools yet to receive ISKCON food

The mid-day meal programme of the Akshaya Patra Foundation has started in Kolkata's government-run schools and though some schools got the meals, a few had not received food. Students were served rice, paneer and potato gravy prepared at the central kitchens of ISKCON. Food was distributed by teachers and a laddu was also given to the students in the primary sections in some schools.

Headmistress of Kolkata Metropolitan School, Debjani Mukherjee told Careers360, "For those schools which got, it had rice and paneer & potato gravy. The meal came in bulk from the ISKCON centres and the teachers had to serve. The primary section of one school also has a laddu."

However, not all schools received the meals. A teacher at a government school in Ballygunge stated, "We were waiting, but meals did not come but we had kept arrangements ready for the meal."

Also read ‘Why change what’s working?’: Opposition to Akshaya Patra in West Bengal goes beyond eggs in mid-day meals

ISKCON kitchen to expand meal coverage

Suvendu Adhikari, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, inaugurated ISKCON's mega kitchen in Kolkata on Saturday, from which 44,000 students in 500 government and government aided schools in the city will receive mid-day meals daily. The chief minister, who joined the 'yajna' at Taratala facility, announced the coverage to be extended to 2.5 lakh students in the next three months. He has also informed that the allocation of mid-day meal scheme has been raised to Rs 10 per student per meal.

As per PTI report, the chief minister stated that the state government will continue to supply boiled eggs twice a week to the self-help groups (SHGs) besides supplying vegetarian food cooked by ISKCON. He also guaranteed that no cook would lose his job in the existing mid-day meal as their monthly wages have been revised from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Adhikari inaugurated the facility then went to the kitchen and had a part in preparing the cooked food, and flagged off the electric vehicles that will take the cooked food to schools.