Chief Minister\'s Breakfast Scheme Launched in Telangana, To Benefit 23 Lakh Students

HYDERABAD: Led by IT minister K.T. Rama Rao, the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme for government schools was inaugurated on Friday. It will be extended to all state-run schools for students from Classes 1 to 10 after the Dasara vacation. 

Ministers T. Harish Rao, Patnam Mahender Reddy and education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy inaugurated the scheme at the Zilla Parishad High School in Raviryala, Rangareddy district. Simultaneous launches took place in select schools across all 119 constituencies. Following the launch, the ministers joined students in enjoying the breakfast. 

Rama Rao was seen interacting with kids, asking them about what they want to be when they grow up, and more.

Inaugurating the scheme at a government high school in West Marredpally, Hyderabad, Rama Rao emphasised that the groundbreaking initiative would benefit 23 lakh students. 

He stressed the importance of maintaining high-quality food standards and conducting regular quality checks to ensure that students receive nutritious and delicious meals.

Finance minister T Harish Rao said that the move will revolutionise school education by ensuring that students have access to nutritious food, thereby allowing them to focus on their studies. "It is particularly beneficial for children from low-income families, as it removes the concern of sending their children to school on an empty stomach," he noted. Education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy highlighted that the scheme not only guarantees daily access to nutritious food for students but also addresses the issue of school dropouts. She cited a concerning statistic, revealing that only two out of every 10 students had breakfast before coming to school and extended gratitude to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for understanding the plight of these students. 

Additionally, the Telangana government decided to extend this initiative to students in Classes 9 and 10, expanding beyond the traditional mid-day meal scheme that typically covers students up to Class 8. The menu includes two breakfast options, offering a variety of dishes such as idli, , pongal, poori, upma, vegetable pulao and wheat rawa upma, along with sambar and chutney. 

The scheme will cover 23 lakh students across nearly 28,000 schools, including aided and model institutons and madrasas under the education department's purview. In urban areas, the Akshaya Patra Foundation will manage the breakfast programme while self-help groups will oversee it in rural areas, with the scheme expected to incur an annual cost of around Rs 400 crore.

The decision to implement the CM Breakfast Scheme in Telangana was informed by a study conducted by a team of officers who visited Tamil Nadu to observe a similar programme there.

Following their assessment and report submission, the Telangana government decided to initiate the scheme for students here.