Price hike: Bengal colleges face powerful time to serve noon meals

By PTI

KOLKATA: Primary and Upper Primary colleges in West Bengal are discovering it tough to serve noon meal to college students on account of hike in costs of important commodities, in keeping with authorities of various colleges in districts.

The Bengal Primary Teachers’ Association has drawn the eye of the School Education Department to the problem and demanded the current noon meal allocation of Rs 4.97 for each pupil at main degree and Rs 7.45 for each pupil at higher main degree be raised in order that the noon meal menu will not be tinkered with for the kids and their dietary elements should not compromised.

Headmaster of an higher main college in Purba Medinipur district Ananda Handa advised PTI on behalf of the affiliation “we have to tinker with the menu like introducing egg curry or boiled egg for one day in a week unlike twice in past. However, management of various schools are sticking to the diet of dal, soybean, mixed vegetable, boiled potato as we don’t want to compromise on the issue of the health of our children.”

The academics must bear the bills from their pockets throughout crunch conditions many a time, he stated.

Handa stated a lot of college students are coming to varsities after the campuses opened as soon as the pandemic section ended and they’re going through the prospect of being disadvantaged of the required noon meal menu because of the worth spiral of necessities.

“If 150 gram of rice is allotted for one person daily, how come 3 kg a month allotment help. If daily 150 gram of rice is inadequate for a child, 3 kg a month allocation is even lower and is far beyond the 150 gram threshold limit . That amount is inadequate for a normal child. We demand at least Rs 50-100 be hiked for every child,” he stated.

While main colleges are for college students from courses 1 to 4, college students from class 5 to eight are in higher main colleges.

“We want the children from class one to eight be given musur dal regularly conforming to their health requirements,” he stated.

An training official stated 83,945 colleges having 1,15,82,658 college students are supplied with free cooked noon meal daily and there was no report in regards to the noon meal challenge being affected because it resumed two months again after two 12 months break.

In the final two years, on account of pandemic, packets of rice, soybean, dal was once distributed amongst mother and father of scholars from respective colleges on a selected day.

Another college division official stated there are 15,000 SSKs (Shishu Siksha Kendra – main academic establishments run by zilla parishads).

Firoza Begum, Headmistress of a main college in Murshidabad district, stated “we are still maintaining soybean for three days and egg one day routine with difficulty. It is difficult as the price of an egg is between Rs 5.50-6 and we are trying to adjust without compromising food nutrition part. We have to buy potatoes at a price of Rs 15/kg minimum up from Rs 5/kg in the pre-pandemic days.”

She stated the noon meal is extra important for college students from deprived backgrounds in rural areas and so they have made illustration to native BDO workplace in regards to the state of affairs turning tough.

A trainer of a Malda college, not wishing to be named, stated “we are being forced to inflate the number of students present. Say there are 100 students in a class and 80 are usually present. To ensure the children do not miss their usual quota of meal, we are sending requirements for 90 students.”

However, Headmaster of a main college in South 24 Parganas district Rathindranath Das stated “there had not been any change in the menu of children in our school in last two months. Egg is being given as usual. But there has been a strain in the costing and expenses which has shot up a bit.”

Naba Kumar Karmakar of Paschim Bango Sikshak Samity stated whereas main and higher main colleges within the metropolis do not face the pinch with regard to noon meals a lot as such schemes are funded by many NGOs, the state of affairs is tough for primary-upper main colleges in districts throughout the state.

In the pre-pandemic days, the every day allocation for each pupil was Rs 4.48 on the main degree and Rs 6.71 for each pupil on the higher main stage.