BMC to provide roasted chana and peanuts for municipal students

The contractor has to give 30 gm packets each of roasted chana and peanuts every alternate day. Representational Image/IStock

Upon being failed by milk and chikki, the BMC has decided to go nuts to provide nutrition to municipal school students. The civic body has recently floated tenders for appointing a contractor to supply roasted chana and peanuts to its schools.

According to a senior civic official, "The contractor will be responsible for supplying chana and peanuts for the next two years. This move will benefit about 3.5 lakh students in over 1,100 BMC schools across the city. The idea is to give civic school students nutritious food." BMC is going to spend over Rs 20 crore for this scheme.

Every alternate day
BMC wants the contractor to give 30 gm packets each of roasted chana and peanuts to students of class I to V every alternate day, and 45 gm packets each of the same to students from class VI to X every alternate day. Once the contractor is appointed, the total quantity of the required food will be decided.

Prior to this, BMC used to give students milk, but since several were allergic to it, they complained of vomiting upon consuming it, and it was stopped. BMC then decided to introduce chikki, "But we faced a lot of problems with that too, as we did not find a bulk supplier to provide enough chikki to fulfil schools' requirements," said another civic official.

Reduce dropout rates
This new move is part of BMC's efforts to reduce dropout rates from its schools. Currently, BMC provides 27 school essentials for its students, to encourage more children to go to school. These items include school uniforms, bags, shoes, tiffin boxes, stationery, etc.

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