Congress MP, experts urge Tamil Nadu CM to scrap plan for centralised midday meal kitchens

Congress MP Senthil Sasikanth, economist Jean Drèze and six other experts on Tuesday wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin urging him to scrap a proposal to set up centralised kitchens under the state’s midday meal scheme.

The proposal was made in the Justice K Chandru Committee report, which suggests measures to curb caste discrimination in educational institutes.

However, the group of experts and researchers argued that centralised kitchens would be detrimental to this purpose. They also said that centralised kitchens could hamper the implementation of the school meal programme.

In August 2023, the state government appointed a single-member committee comprising Chandru, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, to recommend measures to eliminate caste differences among students in educational institutions.

This came after two school students from a Scheduled Caste community were killed by a group of students from an intermediate caste at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

Chandru submitted his report to the state government in June.

One of its recommendations was to do away with decentralised kitchens for cooking food under the midday meal scheme in government schools and replace them with central kitchens in every block.

Chandru’s argument was that centralised kitchens would avert the problem of discrimination against Dalits, who cook and distribute food under the school...

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