Kolkata, Sep 26 The mid-day meal programme at a school in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district resumed on Saturday after remaining suspended for three days allegedly due to non-receipt of funds, officials said.
Khichdi and egg curry were served to students of the Boral Swamiji Vidyapith in Garia near Kolkata, headmaster Biplab Sarkar said.
The school had been facing difficulties in arranging meals as funds had not been received for nearly three months, he said.
Around 200-250 students depend on the mid-day meal at the school, he said.
The headmaster said the programme had earlier been managed by purchasing provisions on credit, but mounting dues to local suppliers eventually forced the school to stop serving meals from Wednesday.
According to the school authorities, around Rs 25,000 was due to a grocery shop, nearly Rs 9,000 to an egg supplier and about Rs 12,000 to an outlet supplying potatoes.
The headmaster said the school had repeatedly written to the civic authorities seeking intervention, but the problem remained unresolved.
A Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality official, however, said funds had not been received from the district for around three months and attributed the delay to problems with the relevant portal.
He said steps were taken to resolve the issue at the earliest.
The school education department also looked into the matter to resolve the issue, an official said
“The children were without food in the school for the past three days. Today, food was served to them. We are happy to see the smile on their faces,” he added.
(PTI News)
