The Hindu Business Line : AP in parleys with HPCL for community kitchens

THE Andhra Pradesh Government is in parleys with public sector Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), to rope in its support to establish Rasoi Ghars or community kitchens to support the Rs 250-crore mid-day meal scheme launched to cover 75 lakh students in the State.

The Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has taken up the matter with HPCL and discussed with the HPCL Chairman, Mr Lal, about the need to set up community kitchens in schools so that cooking food for children in schools will be easy using LPG cylinders.

Addressing a press conference here after the swearing in ceremony of Mr S.S. Barnala, Mr Naidu said reports of some children falling ill after taking the food served in schools were isolated incidents and that the Government machinery was geared up to see that this programme achieved its desired results of bringing more children to schools.

Mr Naidu said DWACRA women would be trained to cook and that a mechanism was established to monitor the progress of the scheme on a day-to-day basis.

Releasing dos and don'ts, he said that steps had been initiated to see that every school would have a separate kitchen facility so that the food could be cooked hygienically.

"We have put in the necessary mechanism and systems in place to see that children do not suffer. In case of negligence, appropriate steps would be initiated against those who deviate from these guidelines," he said.

Commenting on the 18th round of Janmabhoomi, Mr Naidu said that the Government had earmarked Rs 266 crore and this corpus could go up substantially if private contributions are taken into account.

All grievances received in the gram sabhas will be registered and redressed before the next round of Janmabhoomi. This will be placed on the State Web site APONLINE.

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