Chandigarh, July 31(Inditop.com) Punjabis and rich food are not an unusual combination. But the Punjab government has asked the centre to spare more funds for food so that children in government schools across the state can get a better ‘mid-day meal’.
“Punjabis are well known all over for their healthy diet and eating lifestyle, but there is dire need to provide more nutritious food enriched with proteins to the growing children of Punjab under the mid-day-meal scheme,” Punjab’s Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur said Friday.
Kaur asked the central government to immediately enhance its share of cooking cost norms under the mid-day-meal scheme from 75 percent to 80 percent of its existing contribution.
Punjab wants the contribution to be raised from Rs.1.58 to Rs.2.33 per day per child for primary classes and Rs.2.10 to Rs.3.85 per day per child for upper primary classes so that a more balanced and nutritious diet can be provided.
“With the present allocation of central assistance, Punjab, with its share of 25 percent or Rs.0.50 per child, has been providing 480 kilo-calories with 12 gms protein and 700 kilo-calories with 20 gms protein per meal per day in primary and upper primary schools, respectively,” the minister said.
Kaur said the Punjab education department has been successfully providing mid-day-meals to about 2 million (20 lakh) students from class one to eight in all the primary and upper primary schools of the state for 245 days in a year.
The education minister said the present total conversion cost for the meal comes out at Rs.2.08 per day for primary students and Rs.2.60 per day for upper primary students.
The state government will spend over Rs.1.05 billion (RS.105 crore) for the mid-day meal scheme. The central assistance in this is over Rs.820 million (Rs.82 crore).
