Stalin urges Oppn MLAs, MPs to launch breakfast scheme in constituencies

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has urged MLAs and MPs belonging to all parties to launch the children's breakfast scheme in state-run primary schools in their respective constituencies.

Writing to elected representatives on Tuesday (August 22), Stalin outlined the scheme, which would be “carved in golden letters” in Tamil Nadu’s history, for government-run primary school children.

An order was issued on June 7 to extend the breakfast scheme to all the 31,008 government primary schools, across urban and rural Tamil Nadu, to benefit 15.75 lakh primary students, the chief minister wrote. In the first phase, 1.14 lakh students in Classes 1–5 in 1,545 government primary schools are already provided breakfast on all working days under the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme.

The government has embarked upon the expansion considering the excellent outcome witnessed in the preliminary phase.

Stalin said he would inaugurate the scheme's expansion in Nagappattinam district on August 25, and it will be launched by the ministers in their respective districts.

He invited elected representatives cutting across party lines to launch the plan's extension in a government primary school in their respective constituencies. MLAs and MPs belonging to his party, DMK, main Opposition, AIADMK, his party's allies, the Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, the CPI, and CPI(M) were invited besides the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the BJP, in Opposition ranks.

In his Independence Day address, Stalin announced the scheme’s expansion, scheduled on August 25.

The government has allocated Rs 404 crore for the scheme in the current fiscal, which would be launched by him in a school in Tirukkuvalai, near Tiruvarur, where late M Karunanidhi studied. Tirukkuvalai is about 30 km from Nagapattinam, the district headquarters.

On September 15, 2022, launching the breakfast scheme in Madurai, Stalin, quoting Periyar EV Ramasamy, CN Annadurai, and M Karunanidhi, had said nothing — be it poverty or caste — should be an obstacle to access education.

During the early 1900, when the Colonel Olcott School took shape in Chennai, it was social reformer Pandithar Iyothee Thassar who sowed the seeds for providing lunch to school children.

In a first, the noon meal scheme was launched in 1922 in a Chennai Corporation school by Mayor Pitti Theagarayar, stalwart of the Justice Party.

Months ahead of Independence, the British regime had put the noon meal scheme on hold, citing financial constraints.

Later, in 1955, former Chief Minister K Kamaraj inaugurated the noon meal scheme, and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran launched the nutritious meal programme in 1982. The scheme underwent continuous upgrades during the successive AIADMK and DMK regimes. On July 27, 2022, the authorities issued a Government Order (GO) for the breakfast scheme implementation.

(With agency inputs)