Ahead of the Assembly elections in December this year, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to offer breakfast to students of all government elementary and high schools from 24 October as a Dasara gift.
Christened the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme, it apparently aims to provide nutritious food to students to help them concentrate on their studies.
The chief minister, who has introduced a slew of welfare schemes for various strata of society, hit upon the idea of providing breakfast to the students on the lines of the one that is in force in Tamil Nadu.
The scheme is also expected to help parents who find it difficult to provide breakfast for their children as they have to leave early in the morning to work as labourers in agriculture fields and other sectors, according to an official statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on Friday, 15 September.
Outlay of ₹400 crore per year
The chief minister felt that the scheme would help further strengthen the education sector in the state and improve the health of the students as they focused on studies in schools, according to the CMO statement.
The Telangana government is said to have already issued a Government Order (GO) to this effect.
The decision to offer breakfast to children was taken following a report filed by officials who visited Tamil Naidu and studied how the officials there were implementing it in the schools.
The scheme in Tamil Naud is restricted to only children of primary schools, but KCR has decided to cover students of high schools as well, according to the statement.
Though the scheme is expected to cost the state government ₹400 crore per annum, KCR decided that it was worth the cost, according to the statement.
