WB hands over mid-day meal cooking to ISKCON as CM inaugurates Kolkata kitchen

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday, 1 August inaugurated an ISKCON mega kitchen in Kolkata that will prepare mid-day meals for 44,000 students across 500 state-run and aided schools in the city.

Adhikari took part in a 'yajna' before formally opening the facility in Taratala in south-west Kolkata.

"Initially, ISKCON will serve mid-day meals to 44,000 students in 500 Kolkata schools. Within the next three months, mid-day meals will reach 2.5 lakh students. The allocation has been increased to Rs 10 per meal per student," he said.

The chief minister said the state government would separately provide boiled eggs to students twice a week through self-help groups, in addition to the meals prepared by ISKCON.

"Balanced nutrition will help in children's overall development," he said, thanking ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) for the initiative.

Adhikari said mid-day meal cooks would not be retrenched and that their monthly remuneration had already been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000.

He later visited the kitchen and participated in the preparation of the meals. He also flagged off electric vehicles that will transport the food to schools.

Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agrawal, School Education Minister Dipak Barman and around 40 students from five schools attended the inaugural programme.

The initiative aims to streamline the preparation and distribution of meals under the state's mid-day meal scheme, officials said.