Overview
- The state government has announced a scheme to supply both breakfast and mid-day meals to students in government and aided intermediate junior colleges, scaling up to about 1.92 lakh beneficiaries across 430 colleges with 41,250 students covered on the first day.
- Menus will rotate weekly and include items such as dosa, millet idli, poori, bonda, idli and upma, with 150 ml of milk provided on alternate days.
- The plan was drawn from National Institute of Nutrition recommendations and aims to meet adolescent needs of roughly 1,029 kilocalories and 30–32 grams of protein per day.
- The government estimates the programme will cost about ₹180 crore a year, with reporting noting an ₹80 crore allocation for breakfast and ₹100 crore for mid-day meals.
- Officials say the scheme is meant to ease financial hardship, boost attendance and cut dropouts among students from rural, tribal and economically weaker families, but detailed arrangements for on-the-ground delivery and monitoring have not yet been reported.