During this event, the Chief Minister personally served breakfast to the school children and shared the meal with them. In Chennai, his son and cabinet minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin, also launched the expansion of the program.

Also read: Kerala: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan releases additional textbooks to reintroduce portions deleted by NCERT

The Chief Minister had previously announced on June 7, 2023, that the breakfast programme would be extended to all 31,008 government primary schools across both urban and rural areas of Tamil Nadu. This expansion is aimed at benefiting 15.75 lakh primary students. Currently, the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme provides breakfast to 1.14 lakh students in Classes 1 to 5 in 1,545 government primary schools on all working days.

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The decision to expand the programme was made due to its successful implementation in the initial phase, the goal is to ensure children attend school without hunger. Stalin has encouraged elected representatives to launch the extension of the programme in government primary schools within their respective constituencies, Telangana Today reported.

During his Independence Day address, the Chief Minister had announced the expansion of the free breakfast scheme. While launching the breakfast scheme in Madurai on September 22, 2022, Stalin emphasised that no obstacle, including poverty or caste, should hinder access to education, echoing the views of late leaders such as Periyar E V Ramasamy, C N Annadurai, and M Karunanidhi.

On August 23, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced the release of additional textbooks by SCERT incorporating the topics that were recently deleted from the NCERT textbooks, reported ANI.

Updated: 25 Aug 2023, 01:05 PM IST