The government has allotted ₹672 crore for the rollout of the scheme, which is expected to benefit 20 lakh students across the state.
Published Oct 05, 2023 | 9:00 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 05, 2023 | 9:01 PM
A team of officials from Telangana studied Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme. (Laasya Shekhar/South First)
Telangana will launch its free breakfast scheme for students in all government schools in the state on Friday, 6 October.
The breakfast will be served 45 minutes before the commencement of classes. A day before launching it, the government released the day-wise menu for the scheme.
On Mondays, the students will be served idly with sambar or upma with chutney; on Tuesday it is poori with alu kurma or tomato bath with sambar.
On Wednesdays, the students will get upma with sambar or khichdi with chutney. On Thursday it is millet idly or pongal with sambar.
On Friday it is uggani/poha/millet idly or khichdi with chutney, On Saturday it is pongal with sambar or vegetable pulao with raita/aloo kurma.
CM's Breakfast Scheme will provide breakfast to over 20 lakh students in Telangana. pic.twitter.com/4sUIN4061P
— Telangana Digital Media Wing (@DigitalMediaTS) October 5, 2023
The scheme is aimed at reducing hunger in the classroom, addressing malnutrition, optimising the health and growth of students, motivating students to attend school regularly, maximising enrolment to reduce the dropout rate, and improving socialisation.
It is expected to benefit 20 lakh Class I to X students in 27,147 government schools across Telangana.
Earlier, the secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Smita Sabharwal, had sent a team to Tamil Nadu to study the free breakfast scheme.
The government will also train cooks-cum-helpers with the help of reputed agencies. They will modernise existing kitchens and will technically support them.
A standard operating procedure will be followed for cooking, serving, sanitisation, and maintaining hygiene. The government will monitor and track the cooking process through a mobile app.
The headmaster supervises at the school level, and a nodal officer monitors all the schools in the mandal. The district educational officers will monitor all schools in their respective districts along with the community coordinator of Samagra Shiksha.
The programme is implemented jointly with Panchayat Raj, Women Development, and Child Welfare departments.
Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy commented that all ministers, legislators, and other public representatives will start this programme on Friday in one school in each Assembly constituency.
She explained that arrangements are being made to expand the scheme to all schools after the Dussehra holidays.
“Basic facilities are being increased in schools. The responsibility of monitoring the implementation of this scheme is entrusted to municipal commissioners in urban areas and additional district collectors in rural areas,” the minister said.
The state government has already allocated ₹672 crore to implement the scheme. An additional ₹187 crore has been allotted for thin rice and ₹120 crore for buying eggs, she added.
The Telangana government is set to launch the CM's Breakfast Scheme on October 6 across all government schools in Telangana.
The initiative aims to ensure that students do not experience hunger while at school and to optimize their health and growth. pic.twitter.com/i2EQAAiPMg
— Telangana Digital Media Wing (@DigitalMediaTS) October 5, 2023
