The Centre on Wednesday renamed the National Scheme for Mid Day Meal in Schools programme to PM Poshan for providing one cooked meal to ch...
The Centre on Wednesday renamed the National Scheme for Mid Day Meal in Schools programme to PM Poshan for providing one cooked meal to children studying in Classes 1 to 8 in government and government-aided schools.
The government will also extend the scheme to pre-primary, or Bal Vatika, students in government or government-aided schools. The National Education Policy 2020 had recommended the extension of the midday meal scheme to pre-primary students, reported The Hindu.
In a statement, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the total budget of the scheme for a five-year period till financial year 2025-’26 would be Rs 1.30 lakh crore.
The Centre would bear Rs 54.06 thousand crore of the total expenditure and state government and Union Territory administrations Rs 31.73 thousand crore. The central government would also bear a cost of about Rs 45,000 crore on foodgrains.
“The scheme covers about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools across the country,” the statement said. “During 2020-21, government of India invested more than Rs 24,400 crore in the scheme, including cost of about Rs 11,500 crore on foodgrains.”
States will be asked to directly transfer cash of cooking costs to schools and to the bank accounts of cooks and helpers as their...
