Over 9,000 students of 74 primary schools across Coimbatore district will benefit from the breakfast scheme announced by the Tamil Nadu government.
The State government passed an order granting ₹33.56 crore for the free breakfast scheme at government schools across 15 districts on Wednesday.
According to a Government Order issued to the social welfare and women empowerment department (under which the Nutritious Meal Programme operates), 9,467 children of Classes I to V belonging to 62 corporation schools, nine Mettupalayam municipal schools and three Madukkarai municipal schools will be provided with free breakfast.
Department officials said that this is the first phase and that all the schools will be covered after a trial period.
Corporation Commissioner M. Prathap told The Hindu that tenders calling for NGOs to tie up with them for setting up kitchens and supplying meals to the children would soon be rolled out as per officials' instructions. He said that centralised and zonal kitchens would be set up where food would be prepared and suppliers would distribute them to the designated schools.
Further, according to the GO, 26 corporation and 38 hilly-region government schools in Erode district, and 63 in the Nilgiris district have been selected for the first phase.
The scheme is expected to serve 1,14,095 students of 1,545 government schools across the State.
