Delhi will become the “first state” in the country to serve midday meal up to class 12 (File) Delhi will become the “first state” in the country to serve midday meal up to class 12 (File)

Coming April, girl students up to class 12 in all Delhi government schools will get midday meal facility. The city government will earmark separate funds in its budget proposals for extending the scheme– which as of now covers boy and girl students till class 8 only.

The government claimed that Delhi will become the “first state” in the country to serve midday meal up to class 12.

“The Delhi government will start serving midday meal to girl students of class 9 to 12 from April 1 onwards. For this, the government will set aside Rs 50 crore,” said Atishi Marlena, the advisor to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

She said that later on, boys of these classes will also be covered under the scheme. The Centre gives around Rs 95-crore assistance to Delhi government annually for serving midday meal from Class 1 to 8.

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“As the central government’s financial assistance is only for up to class 8, the (Delhi) government will bear additional expenditure on the expansion of scheme in Delhi,” she said.

In Delhi, there are around 1,000 government-run schools with 16 lakh students in them. Out of 1,000, there are around 450 girl schools. Like it did last year, the government will provide 25 per cent of the total budget to education sector. The budget will be presented on March 8.

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