Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Sunday appealed to people to focus on building centralised kitchens to feed children instead of constructing temples.
“If we can provide quality food to children under the mid-day meal scheme, we can drastically reduce the dropout ratio. I believe that it’s better to build kitchens to feed children than building temples,” Ms. Patel said, inaugurating a fully-automated kitchen, built by an NGO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) at Bhadaj village here on Sunday.
The TAPF-run kitchen, spread across two acres, is built at a cost of Rs. 15 crore and is hailed as one of the biggest in the country with a capacity to prepare two lakh meals within five hours with the help of large machines and boilers. “Food prepared in this kitchen will be sent to numerous government-run schools and anganwadis within the periphery of 100 km as mid-day meal,” TAPF official Chanchalpati Dasjee said.
Stressing the need for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in building similar kitchens in the State, the Chief Minister also gave details about her next plan to build toilets with the help of private firms.
“We have already asked State-run PSUs to adopt anganwadis in each district and provide them LPG connections and gas stoves to prepare food. Now, our focus is to build toilets in villages with the help of private firms,” she said.
“All the major companies are having their CSR [corporate social responsibility] budget. My government has already acquired account statements of each and every firm operating in Gujarat to see how much they are giving back to society. In the coming days, all these firms will be asked to adopt villages in their respective areas and build toilets from their CSR budget,” she said.
