Cabinet nod to 'PM Poshan' scheme roll-out for providing hot cooked meal to school kids

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the roll-out of the 'PM POSHAN in Schools' scheme that will provide hot cooked meal to students of elementary classes in government and government-aided schools across the country.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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The existing mid-day meal scheme will be subsumed into the PM Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme with the addition of several new components in it, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said after the meeting.

"The CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister, has approved the continuation of 'National Scheme for PM POSHAN in Schools' for the five years, from 2021-22 to 2025-26, with a financial outlay of Rs 54061.73 crores from the central government and Rs 31,733.17 crore from the state governments and union territory administrations," the government said in a statement.

The central government will also bear the additional cost of about Rs 45,000 crore on food grains.

"Therefore, the total scheme budget will amount to Rs 1,30,794.90 crore," the statement added.

The PM POSHAN scheme will cover all school children studying in classes 1-8 of government and government-aided schools.

"The scheme will cover about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools across the country," the statement said.