The School Education Department issued a notification on September 11, informing the districts of this decision.
The Suvendu Adhikari government in West Bengal has scrapped the approval granted to the “Akshaya Patra Foundation” – an NGO linked to ISKCON – to supply meals to schools across four districts of the state.
Within three weeks, the state government has reversed its decision. Following a review, the proposal was approved in August, and instructions were issued to the relevant district administration and officials of the PM Poshan scheme to expedite the necessary procedures. The proposal was if they succeed, they will extend it across the districts.
On August 21, the organisation was entrusted with the responsibility of providing mid-day meals in Howrah, Purulia, Purba Midnapore and North 24 Parganas. A proposal to supply food to schools was submitted to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari by Akshaya Patra on July 11, according to departmental sources.
The government had assigned the “Akshaya Patra Foundation” for the mid-day meal service in the government-run schools in Kolkata.
Reports indicate that the approval has been withdrawn before the actual supply of food could begin.
Then, the responsibility was shifted to another organisation. Now, the Education Department is indicating that the task might be handed over to them again. What exactly is going on? One of the first decisions by the BJP government was to hand over the responsibility of midday meals to Kolkata schools to ISKCON – the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. But this would have taken eggs off the menu and after a massive row over it, the government changed its mind.
Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh said, “We saw that the responsibility for the mid-day meal scheme was initially entrusted to ISKCON.
