Bengal govt withdraws Akshaya Patra Foundation’s approval to serve Mid-Day Meals in 4 districts

Kolkata, Sep 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari-led West Bengal government, has withdrawn approval given to Akshaya Patra Foundation, an arm of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), to serve Mid-Day Meals at state-run schools in four districts.

The four districts where the approvals have been withdrawn by the West Bengal government are North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Purulia and East Midnapore, the last being the native district of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

An insider from the state secretariat Nabanna said that following the withdrawal of this approval, the old system of cooking and serving the Mid-Day Meals within the school campuses will be followed again.

However, Annamrita Foundation, another arm of ISKCON, will continue to prepare and serve Mid-Day Meals at state-run schools within the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

After the BJP came to power in West Bengal, ISKCON was given the responsibility of providing Mid-Day Meals to school students. Initially, this organisation started providing Mid-Day Meals to schools within the KMC's jurisdiction.

The state government then announced that if the project proves to be successful in Kolkata, it would be extended to other districts of West Bengal.

After that, the responsibility of providing Mid-Day Meals to schools in the four districts of Howrah, Purulia, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur was given to ISKCON’s Akshay Patra Foundation.

However, before it was even started, the state government decided to withdraw the approval and no clarification has been given by the Adhikari government on the sudden decision to withdraw the approval.

Initially, the decision of the state government to approve ISKCON-served food for Mid-Day Meals at government schools in West Bengal received massive criticism from the Opposition parties as well as from civil society, who argued that ISKCON-provided vegetarian meals would deprive the students of non-vegetarian protein-rich diets like eggs.

However, the criticisms stopped after the Chief Minister announced that eggs would also be served with the Mid-Day Meals separately, in addition to the ISKCON-provided vegetarian meals. Accordingly, the budgetary allocation for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme was also increased.

Source: IANS