CHENNAI: After pioneering the initiative to provide free meal to ensure that children were sent to school by parents, which later became a model for the country and the world, late chief minister K Kamaraj finally got due credit after the State government decided to name the free breakfast scheme after the Congress leader.
The government also announced that the expansion of the scheme to include students of Classes 6 to 8 would be launched on September 17.
This is also considered to be a deft political move by the alliance leader TVK, as the move would endear itself with the Congress, a key constituent in the ruling coalition.
According to a government order issued by Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department Secretary M Pallavi Baldev, the expansion of Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Breakfast Scheme will benefit 15,14,274 students studying in 15,454 government schools across the State. The government has allocated Rs 217.63 crore for the expansion.
Incidentally, the order is dated July 15, Kamaraj’s birth anniversary, and the expansion will be launched on September 17, the birth anniversary of Dravidian icon Periyar EV Ramasamy.
"The scheme will be extended to 447 schools in Chennai, where the Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation will oversee its implementation," the order said. In the remaining districts, the scheme implementation will be monitored by Collectors. The order also stated that the existing menu, operational guidelines, and monitoring mechanism would continue without any changes.
The breakfast scheme, conceived by the previous DMK government and launched by the then chief minister MK Stalin in 2022, currently provides nutritious breakfast to 19.34 lakh primary school students in government schools.
Under the scheme, students are served upma, kichadi, or pongal on weekdays, with rava kesari or semiya kesari added to the menu on Fridays. Locally available millets feature on the menu at least twice a week. The government spends upward of Rs 12.71 per child on each breakfast.