Central team visits schools in West Bengal to review midday meal scheme

KOLKATA: A 13-member central team on Monday started a review of the midday meal scheme in schools in West Bengal, a senior official said. The joint review mission consisting of Union education ministry officials, one nutritionist, and a representative of UNICEF along with the director of PM Poshan Scheme, V Bhaskar, also held a meeting with state education department officials.

The officials, who are scheduled to conduct their review by February 6, visited several schools in North and South 24 Parganas districts on Monday. The team, which reached the city on Sunday evening, will check school infrastructure and the quality of food served to school children under the mid-day meal scheme.

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"This is a routine visit. We carry out such reviews in the states every year. We will try to visit as many districts as possible. Today we met the officials of the School Education department," an official of the team said after the meeting. She said that after conducting the review when they will talk to school children and their parents, the team will prepare statistics that will be submitted to the Centre.

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The team went to a school at Rajarhat in North 24 Parganas districts, where they spoke to parents of students and enquired about the quality of food served to the children there. Thereafter, the team went to visit schools in the South 24 Parganas district. The Centre has recently allocated a fund of Rs 372 crore under the PM Poshan scheme to the state in order to provide nutritious food to school students. It has also released an additional fund of Rs 250 crore to the school education department for infrastructural development.