BMC forms committee to decide on midday meal options

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will be forming a five-member committee which will decide on food options for midday meals provided to civic school students. The committee will comprise two representatives from the administration, two from the BMC education committee, and a nutritionist. The decision was taken during the eduction committee meeting on Friday, which lasted nearly 10 hours.

At present, children of most civic schools in the city are given different varieties of khichdi (a porridge of grain and vegetables) six days a week.

Education committee chairman Vinod Shelar said, "Students get bored of having the same food everyday. We have decided that students should be provided khichdi only twice a week; for the other days, there should be different options."

BMC has long been trying to provide chikki as part of the meal to civic schoolchildren, but in vain. The administration claims that it did not find any suitable contractor who would be able to manufacture chikki everyday in a large quantity. In the recent education committee budget, however, the option of chikki did not feature at all.

Shelar said he will meet municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte on Monday to discuss the chikki issue.

Another decision taken in the meeting on Friday was the administration deciding to release grants to primary private schools, who have been asking for them since 2009.