The mid-day meal arranged by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) for students in state-run schools within the area of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) started from Saturday, with the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari himself inaugurating the religious organisation's mid-day meal programme at Taratala in Kolkata.
The ISKCON-served mid-day meal was served among 44,000 students of 500 primary and upper-primary schools within the KMC area.
"Soon, the same ISKCON-served mid-day meal will be served among 2.5 lakh students in all state-run schools within the KMC area," the Chief Minister told media persons at the sidelines of the inauguration of the Taratala programme.
At the same time, the Chief Minister reiterated his commitment made earlier this week of serving eggs to the students, besides the ISKCON-served meals, which will be arranged separately by the state government through different self-help groups (SHGs).
Chief Minister Adhikari confirmed that besides the ISKCON-served meals these students will be provided with eggs twice a week.
"Some group unnecessarily created an issue claiming the ISKCON-served meals will mean that the students will be deprived of eggs. These groups created an issue of nothing and even brought out protest marches in the matter. They could have easily contacted the official of the School Education department about the state government's agreement with ISKCON in the matter. They could have even contacted the ISKCON authorities also. But instead of doing that they just created an issue out of nothing," the Chief Minister said.
At the same time, the Chief Minister also assured the cooks involved in the mid-day meal cooking about their wages.
"The women involved with mid-day meal cooking earlier will not lose their jobs. They will be involved with the ISKCON-served mid-day meal system. In addition to that from August, their wages will be increased by Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 a month. A month ago, I saw a procession with mid-day meal cooks. I did not say anything then. Now I will tell those protesters that not a single cook sister will be laid off. They will continue to be a part of the mid-day meal cooking and distribution process," Chief Minister Adhikari said.
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