Schoolkids to get eggs in mid-day meals from today

Hubballi: Eggs will be distributed for mid-day meals in district government and aided schools from Tuesday onwards.
All schools in the district have been asked to make arrangements for boiling and serving eggs.
The state government has fixed the cost of each egg at Rs 6. The education department has decided to delegate authority over egg distribution to local school development monitoring committees (SDMCs) and the school management.
The fund required for distributing the eggs has been transferred to the schools.
Children who do not want eggs will get bananas or groundnut chikki in their meals.
Initially, the move to serve eggs in school meals was delayed because some organisations opposed it. The education department then asked SDMCs to look into the matter and take an appropriate call. In Dharwad, the egg distribution was also delayed because of the month of Shravan.
Over 1,072 government schools, including aided ones, will serve eggs to 1,59,405 students.
The government is already providing eggs, bananas and groundnut chikki to students in Kalyana Karnataka districts to students from Classes 1-8.
The education officer of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakthi Nirman (Midday meal), Roopa Purumkar, said the move is in line with checking malnutrition among students.
Zilla panchayat CEO Suresh Itnal said: “We have authorised the SDMCs and the school management to distribute the eggs.”