To serve hygienic mid-day meal to at least 50,000 students of government schools in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district a mega centralised kitchen is being set up at Keitha village, an official said.

The foundation stone of the mega kitchen was laid by Hazaribag MP Jayant Sinha on Sunday.

The kitchen is being set up by Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation Akshay Patra Foundation (APF) with financial help of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) and Ramgarh district administration, an official said.

Sinha, who is also chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance, said that the kitchen is coming up on 2.5 acres of land at Keitha village along NH-33 in Ramgarh town, some 60-km from state capital Ranchi.

"The centralised hi-tech kitchen aims to provide fresh and hygienic mid-day meal to students, which will help fight malnutrition in underprivileged children and increase attendance," he said.

CCL has provided Rs 15 crore for construction of the kitchen building.

"CCL has also sanctioned Rs 7 crore under corporate social responsibility (CSR) for operation of the kitchen for three years," said Balakrishna, CCL General Manager (Welfare).

A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was recently signed between CCL, district administration and Akshay Patra Foundation for setting up the kitchen.

APF has been servicing mid-day meal to a total of 21 lakh government school children from its 67 centralised mega kitchens in 12 states including neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, said regional president of Akshay Patra Foundation Vyomapada Dada.

"Mid-day meal prepared in centralised kitchen for each student costs Rs 13, of which government provides Rs 6 and 100 grams of food grain. The gap of Rs 7 comes from donors especially corporate companies," Vyomapada Dada said.

Madhavi Mishra, Ramgarh Deputy Commissioner said that the administration has handed over the government land to the organization for a cause to serve hygienic food to government school children in Ramgarh district, which would certainly reduce drop out ratio and increase attendance. PTI CORR SAN RG

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