Congratulating Stalin for the scheme, which he said was a big achievement for the DMK government as it enhanced the education prospects and secured the health of the students, Mann said that hungry children could not learn.
Chennai: Hailing Chief Minister M K Stalin as a true people’s leader, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann said that the Punjab Cabinet would soon pass a resolution to bring in a free breakfast scheme for school children on the lines of the one that has been implemented in Tamil Nadu by the DMK government, benefitting over 21 lakh primary school students.
Participating as a chief guest at the event in Chennai to mark the expansion of the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme to 2,430 government-aided schools in urban areas on Tuesday, Mann said the breakfast scheme was a great initiative as it improved attendance in classes and also the learning abilities of the students.
Congratulating Stalin for the scheme, which he said was a big achievement for the DMK government as it enhanced the education prospects and secured the health of the students, Mann said that hungry children could not learn.
Punjab too cared for the education and health of the poor people, Mann said, referring to the Aam Aadmi clinics dispensing free medicines and conducting free blood tests, and described Tamil Nadu’s Breakfast scheme as a model for other States to follow with a vow to implement it in his State.
He also had a word of praise for the food served under the scheme in Tamil Nadu, saying that it was healthy and for the State’s delicacies in general. Dishes like ‘upma’ and ‘masala dosa' were available in almost every town in Punjab, he said, adding: ‘Your’s is national food, while ours is a bit heavy.’
Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi, speaking at the event, thanked Mann and his wife Gurpreet Kaur for gracing the function and said the bond between Tamil Nadu and Punjab had endured for a long time and continued to grow stronger.
When M Karunanidhi assumed the office of the Chief Minister in 1969, he visited Ludhiana and was inspired by the functioning of the Punjab Agricultural University so much that he established the agricultural college in Coimbatore in 1971, Udhayanidhi Stalin recalled.
On the Breakfast scheme, he said what began in 2022 as a pilot project in about 1500 schools had now been expanded to 37,416 government and government-aided schools across the State.
He said the Chief Minister felt that health and education empowered people to emerge as successful citizens and leaders and the breakfast scheme had helped bridge the gap between disadvantaged and privileged students, ensuring equal opportunities for every child to succeed.
The expansion of the scheme to government-aided schools was welcomed by women, who thanked the Chief Minister for reducing their work burden in the morning hours while packing their children to school. Catherine of Santhome area said that her daughter left home without having breakfast, which was a matter of great concern to her, and now she was happy that she would be able to eat along with other students a sumptuous and healthy meal.
Other mothers of the same area like Julie and Sathya, too, had been facing the same problem in making their children eat breakfast that they invariably refused and left home on an empty stomach. Now those mothers feel that they need not worry about preparing breakfast and making their children have it before leaving for school.
