As per official records and reports, only seven out of the total of 111 government schools in the city of Chandigarh are currently equipped with the facility of mid day meal kitchens within the school premises.
The UT Education Department of Chandigarh has decided to focus on setting up of mid day meal kitchens in the government school premises, for improving overall infrastructure facilities at these schools.
The UT Education Department has now taken up the project to set up these kitchens at three more government schools.
A total amount of Rs 1.5 crore has been sanctioned by the concerned education department. The kitchens will be established at GMSSS 23, GMHS 29 and GMSS 40. The plan out of the whole project has been handed over to the Centre for consideration and final approval. The construction work has been planned to begin as soon as the approval is granted by the government.
An official from the UT Education Department quoted to a reporter, "Now that funds have been allotted, the project for setting up of the mid-day meal kitchens will take off soon.
The project that had been initiated in the year 2013, for setting up mid day meal kitchen in 11 other government schools, suffered a delay due to shortage of funds and space problem in schools.
With this new project, the concerned department is also expected to bring about improvements and few changes to the previously existent seven mid-day meal kitchens.
The education department had been consistently receiving reports regarding the deteriorated quality of mid day meals provided to these government schools.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had earlier prepared a report on the quality of mid-day meals in government schools and as per the data extracted it was sighted that the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) has been serving poor quality food in these government schools.
The reports also highlighted that the meals were being prepared in unhygienic conditions and even the utensils were not being cleaned properly.