West Bengal schools asked to distribute midday meal supplies to parents during summer vacation

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has asked the state-run schools to distribute midday meal supplies among parents of students during the summer vacation so that the children are not deprived of the facility. This will be the first time that midday meal supplies will be distributed among school children during summer vacation, a school education department official said.

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Earlier, such supplies were provided to the students during the pandemic period when schools were closed. In a notice, the education department on Tuesday directed all district magistrates to arrange for distributing midday meal supplies among guardians of beneficiary students, "during the summer vacation at respective school point."

The notice also asked the officials to chalk out a distribution plan by May 25 so that the distribution of supplies could be carried out by every school. Each student would get 2 kg of rice, 2 kg of potato, 250-gram sugar, 250-gram pulses and one piece of soap, the notice said.

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The Headmistress of a primary school in Murshidabad district, Firoza Begum, said, "This is a good step. We will fix a date after May 25, and ask a section of the employees and teachers to come to the school to hand over the uncooked midday meal items to the guardians." As such items had been distributed among parents during the pandemic phase, there will not be any logistical problem, Begum said.