VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday inaugurated Akshaya Patra centralised mid-day meal kitchen by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Mangalagiri. The CM, who launched Goru Muddha scheme, providing mid-day meals to school students with a different menu each day in a week, inspected the state-of-the-art kitchen and served food to students.
The 30-odd girl students of ZPHS, Atmakur were in for a pleasant surprise as the CM served them vegetable biryani and sweets. He has always been particular about the mid-day meal programme and made it a point to mention about the menu details during his review meetings on the subject and education.
The organisers arranged a widespread menu for the special occasion with three sweets — halwa, kova and kala jamun and two starters — gobi manchuria and masala vada. The main course included vegetable biryani, kaju tomato curry, raita, rice, stuffed brinjal curry, potato fry, mango dal, gongura chutney, sambar, curd and kulfi for dessert.
The CM went through the centralised kitchen and the organisers explained to him about its functioning and the capacity before entering the dining hall, where he posed with the students before the mid-day meal.
Later, he flagged off the delivery vehicles, which were donated to the Akshaya Patra for delivering food to the schools. The centralised kitchen has a capacity to cook for 50,000 children. The freshly cooked meals will be delivered to 172 schools with the help of three delivery vehicles in Guntur district.
The kitchen sports the latest equipment to complete all chores from cleaning rice, vegetables, chopping. Special storerooms have been set up in the centre to store food ingredients for a long time. Besides, a special food testing laboratory has been set up. A team will inspect the quality of food before distributing it in the schools. The vehicles, which will carry food, are equipped to keep the food warm for six hours.
Later, Jagan participated in bhoomi puja for Hare Krishna Gokula Kshetram, which is being constructed by the ISKCON at a cost of Rs 70 crore at Kolanukonda in Tadepalli mandal.The temple complex will come up on six and half acres and will be the biggest project taken up in the State by the ISKCON. The construction of the temple will be administered by Hare Krishna Movement, Bengaluru.
Besides Radha Krishna temple, Venkateswara Swamy temple, cultural centres, auditoriums to perform Kuchipudi and other arts will also be constructed. A yoga centre, personal development and leadership skill training centre, and a de-addiction centre will also be set up. Ministers Cherukuvada Sriranganadha Raju, Audimulapu Suresh, Vellampalli Srinivas, MPs, MLCs and MLAs were present on the occasion.