Mid-day meal: Each child in Assam’s tea garden schools to get 3 eggs a week

GUWAHATI: The Assam Cabinet on Wednesday decided to provide three eggs to each eligible child in a week in the mid-day meal of schools in tea garden areas under the Prime Minister's Poshan programme. Eggs being a good source of high-quality protein will boost physical growth while countering the adverse effects of malnutrition, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said at the media briefing after the Cabinet meeting.

''This will have a positive impact on increasing the attendance and retention of children in schools and decreasing the dropout rate,'' Pegu said. The cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, also decided to increase the reservation for Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Minorities and Other Backward Castes (MOBCs) from the existing 15 per cent to 27 per cent in the institutions of higher education, he said.

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The cabinet also approved in principle the 'Suga to Durgam' scheme for better citizen-centric governance and service delivery. According to the scheme, every government employee has to work for a period of three to five years during the course of their service in certain geographical areas designated as 'Durgam' (difficult) areas, the minister said.

The council of ministers also decided to adopt the Assam Road Network Master Plan (RNMP), 2023 for long-term connectivity requirements and the roads in the state will be classified and notified as state highways and major district roads, Health Minister Keshab Mahanta, who also briefed the media, said.

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The RNMP is prepared with a 20-year period dovetailed into multimodal transport plans, for meeting future travel demands, prioritising 18,421 km of roads for the development of higher order road network comprising 5,120 km of state highways, 8,638 km of major district roads and 4,673 km of national highway.

The roads will be phased into priority 1, priority 2 and priority 3 lists for five-year short-term, 10-year medium term and 20-year long-term periods. The proposed plan will bring down road user costs through efficient transportation and stimulate economic growth for the state, generating employment for 13 lakh people over the next 20 years, Mahanta said.