CHENNAI: The government has extended the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme to cover students in classes 1-5 in 433 government middle and high schools in local bodies where the scheme is already being implemented, and has allotted Rs 4.6 crore for it. The order issued by the social welfare and women empowerment department, dated January 13, also grants permission to the social welfare director to transfer the required funds to the municipal administration director to implement the extension.
The scheme will now cover an additional 336 corporation schools and 97 schools in municipalities across the state and benefit 56,098 more students. The scheme was inaugurated by CM MK Stalin in 1,545 government schools in the state benefiting 1.1 lakh students in May last year and Rs 33.56 crore was allocated for it. This includes 36 Chennai corporation schools, 381 schools in other corporations, 163 schools in municipalities, 728 schools in taluks and 237 schools in hilly areas.
While the schools can decide on the breakfast from the list of options provided by the government, they should also try to give millet-based food at least two days a week. Each student will be provided 150g-200g of food cooked with vegetables and sambar.
Project coordinator K Elambahavath said that the schools will start providing breakfast from next week and preparatory works are going on. “We have received good responses from all the stakeholders. It has increased the attendance of students and improved their attention during classes. The students also come early to school and coming late has reduced drastically. Parents also say that the children eat well when they do it along with other students,” he said.
The implementation of the scheme is also monitored in real-time using a mobile application. The details of food preparation and others are uploaded on it and are monitored from early morning so that any delay can be resolved by the officials.