BENGALURU: Due to a lack of funds and rising cost of eggs, the school education department has announced that eggs as part of the midday meal scheme will be temporarily limited to once a week.
According to a circular released by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), the decision to reduce the number of eggs will be revised after the presentation of the state budget on July 7.
Previously, under the midday meal scheme, eggs would be given twice a week and were distributed for 46 days of the academic year. In case a child did not want eggs, they would be substituted with bananas or chikki.
However, with a change in government, this is also likely to change. The department released a circular, stating that the distribution of eggs, chikki and bananas would be temporarily limited to once a week, due to a lack of funds. However, they stated that it would be resumed twice a week after the presentation of the state budget. Officials said the change would be reversed.
In the meantime, sources from the department stated that a proposal is being made to the government to increase the number of eggs given to students. While currently, eggs are given on 46 days of the year, the department has proposed over twice the increase, appealing for eggs to be given on 100 days.
Currently, the scheme is running as per the previous year’s budget allocation, however, this is expected to change in the coming year. As per the earlier budget, the price of purchasing and cooking the egg was put at Rs 6 -- the egg was to be purchased at Rs 5, and boiling and shelling of the egg to cost Re 1. However, with egg prices soaring to over Rs 6, this has caused issues with the purchase of eggs.
As on Wednesday, an egg costs Rs 6.03.