Mid-day meal to be prepared in cooking gas

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government today decided to replace firewood with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), better known as cooking gas, to prepare mid-day meal in the schools across the State.

In a review meeting chaired by chief secretary G.C. Pati and attended by secretaries from five concerned departments here took a decision to provide 12 LPG cylinders at subsidized rate to the schools. If necessary arises for more number of cylinders, the government would purchase non-subsidised ones for the purpose.

While the School and Mass Education department has chosen 5,000 schools to implement the decision initially, the Food and Supply department will be in charge of managing the programme.

The LPG distribution companies will be linked to these schools, said Food and Supply secretary Madhusudan Padhi.

The meeting also decided to provide smoke-free stoves to 12,500 schools in the State.

The School and Mass Education department will co-ordinate with Panchayati Raj, Food and Supply, Health and Women & Child Welfare departments for smooth functioning of the mid-day meal scheme.

Currently, 56.59 lakh students at 62,640 schools are provided mid-day meals every day in the State.