On the occassion of the third anniversary of his government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the Akshaya Patra Foundation's modern kitchen facility here which would supply mid-day meal to students in government schools around state capital. On this occasion Chief Minister along with several of his ministers distributed food among the children of the primary school besides they had the lunch made by through automatic machines of the Akshaya Patra. CM said that Akshaya Patra’s effort to supply food to students is laudable. ”Now Akshaya Patra is all set to provide meal in the government hospitals,” he said.
After lucknow, Akshaya Patra will set up kitchens at Varanasi, Kanpur, Kannauj and Etawah. The organisation already has kitchen in Vrindavan that supplies MDM to primary students in the region. “The government is ready to provide financial support to the Akshaya Patra to set up more kitchens in the state so that students can get good, nutritious food,” he said.
Akshaya Patra implements the mid-day meal programme in state-run schools in partnership with UP government and the Centre to benefit the children studying in the Government schools. While addressing the gathering Chief Minister spoke about the achievements of the government. We have fulfilled almost all the promises we had made. Our contribution in health, education and infrastructure sector is commendable,” he said.
“In health sector 102 and 108 Samajwadi ambulance services have brought revolution. Five hundred more ambulances would be added in the existing fleet in the next fiscal,” he said. Yadav also said that infrastructure in the police department would be improved. We want to reduce the response time of cops. We want police should reach the crime spot within 15 minutes. 'When our ambulance can reach within 20 minutes, why police cannot reach the spot of crime in 15 minutes', he questioned.
UP Primary education minister Ram Govind Choudhury and his deputy Yogesh Pratap Singh too addressed the gathering. Surprisingly , UP Congress legislature party leader Pradeep Mathur was also present in the function and sought financial help from the state government for the organisation so that they can set up more kitchens in other parts of the state.
Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan said state government is monitoring the midday meals through IVRS system and said that soon all the 1.98 crore students of 1.69 lakh primary school would get food cooked by Akshaya Patra. Thanking Yadav on the occasion, Akshaya Patra Foundation Vice-Chairman Chanchalapathi Dasa said he was grateful to him for his unflinching support. “With his continued encouragement we are confident that we can reach out to more children and serve them nutritious meals everyday,” he said.
The state-of-the-art kitchen in lucknow is spread across two acres of land which is allotted by the State Government.The Caterpillar Foundation's has made the investment of around Rs 20 crore and the unit will produce about 60,000 rotis, 10,000 litres of dal and 7 tonnes of cooked rice within two hours. The automated kitchen is equipped to achieve high standards of quality and hygiene in all processes. The lucknow kitchen will serve 11,800 school students in 109 schools in the district. Akshaya Patra plans to expand the reach to about 1 lakh children from over 690 schools in the region by July 2015.