In 3 Weeks, Bengal Does U-Turn On Akshaya Patra Providing Mid-Day Meals

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. The School Education Department issued a notification on September 11, informing the districts of this decision.

On August 21, the organisation was entrusted with the responsibility of providing mid-day meals in Howrah, Purulia, Purba Midnapore and North 24 Parganas. Within three weeks, the state government has reversed its decision.

According to departmental sources, a proposal to supply food to schools was submitted to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari by Akshaya Patra on July 11.

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. Reports indicate that the approval has been withdrawn before the actual supply of food could begin.

The government had assigned the "Akshaya Patra Foundation" for the mid-day meal service in the government-run schools in Kolkata. The proposal was if they succeed, they will extend it across the districts.

Consequently, uncertainty came up over how much progress will actually be made in the plan to extend the Kolkata model to other districts, sources said.

Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh said, "We saw that the responsibility for the mid-day meal scheme was initially entrusted to ISKCON. 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?"

"We have maintained from the very beginning that the system Mamata Banerjee had successfully implemented - ensuring nutritious food in a good environment - was disrupted. ISKCON's role is not providing mid-day meals; they build palaces," he added.

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.

Since August, the Annamrita Foundation has been providing midday meals to about 500 schools under the PM-Poshan (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman).