Implement Mid-Day Meals Properly First: Telangana Congress To KCR

TPCC president Revanth Reddy today shot an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao about his free breakfast scheme for school students.

In his letter, Reddy said that a lack of basic facilities in the government schools, non-payment of bills to mid-day meal workers, non-payment of cooking maintenance expenses at the increased prices, non-supply of gas cylinders and cooking happening on firewood stoves, were the features of the mid-day meal scheme being implemented in the State.

He said that while the mid-day meal scheme was plagued with several issues like that, the CM was rushing to start a new breakfast scheme.

"The mid-day meal scheme is facing many problems. If the prices in the market fluctuate, the government should increase the budget according to the increased prices. The kitchens in many schools are not proper, and cooking is being done outside under the trees. There are cases where the mid-day meals are contaminated and the students fall ill," Reddy said.

He also lamented that the government was not paying attention to the protests by the midday meal workers for the past few days for resolution of their problems. "Demands for release of increased salaries, increase in budget for the new menu, release of pending bills, immediate payment of increased wages including arrears as per GO 8, ID cards and uniforms for the workers, and free distribution of essential provisional items by the government are not being heeded to," he said.

"And the management of the Gurukuls and welfare hostels in the State has become worse. Nowhere is the food served according to the menu. The quality standards are not met. We often see incidents of students falling ill due to half-cooked food, the water and the unclean environments. We have also seen incidents of the students protesting for quality food," he added.

He said that the midday meal workers were justifiably expressing concern over how they could spend money for the breakfast scheme when they were struggling to cook a single meal for lunch and when they were indebted due to the non-payment of their bills.

"Preparing breakfast for the students is an additional burden on the midday meal workers. The minimum wage should be fixed accordingly. A budget should be allocated for the new menu. But without giving any clarity in these matters, the scheme has been started and is being promoted in a grand way. The problems in the mid-day meal scheme as well as the demands of the mid-day meal workers should be resolved. I demand that the CM's breakfast scheme be effectively implemented," Reddy said.