VIJAYAWADA: The State government began distribution of ration to three lakh students in 45,723 government schools, who are the beneficiaries of the mid-day meal scheme. "The food materials are packed in a bag. Extreme care was taken while packing the food materials. The workers use gloves and sanitisers while packing," said K Ravindranath Reddy additional director, mid-day meal scheme.
Each student of primary section will be getting one kilogram of rice, eight eggs and four packets of chikkis, while each student of upper primary section one-and-half kilogram of rice, eight eggs and four packets of chikkis. "We are providing ration for 10 days to each student," he said.
However, none of the students are supplied with dal. "Rice, eggs and chikkis are provided by the government. But the agency which provides dal and cooking oil has not decided anything of this sort," said K Venugopal Rao, assistant director, mid-day meal scheme (Krishna district). The gram sachivalayam volunteers have been roped in for distributing the ration.
"We have one volunteer for every 50 houses in the State. The volunteers are already on the field to trace foreign returnees. From Tuesday, these volunteers are doing dual work of tracing foreign returnees and distributing ration," said Reddy.
While maximum beneficiaries were given ration at their homes, a few who stay close to the schools were asked to collect from their respective schools. The government is also planning to provide cooking cost - Rs 4.91 and Rs 7.11 a day for primary and upper primary respectively - to students.