Congress brings back KCR’s breakfast scheme after long pause

The Telangana government will relaunch the school breakfast scheme from the 2026-27 academic year. Originally introduced by the BRS government, the programme aims to improve student nutrition and attendance with added provisions like milk and ragi porridge.

Hyderabad: After depriving school students of daily breakfast, a scheme introduced by the previous BRS government, in their institutions for more than two academic years, the Telangana Congress government is re-launching the scheme with a new name from the next academic year.

Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, who presented the budget on Friday, announced the launch of the breakfast scheme from the academic year 2026-27, which will cover students from pre-primary to intermediate level. In addition, milk has also been proposed for students for three days a week, and ragi porridge three times a week.

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To ensure that government and local body students do not start their day on an empty stomach, besides addressing their hunger, the previous BRS government led by former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had already launched and implemented the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme in 2023.

The scheme, which included idli and sambar, puri and aloo kurma, tomato bath, millet idli and sambar, rice rava khichdi, among other food varieties as per the day, became a role model for the entire country. It was designed to benefit 23 lakh students across 27,147 schools in the State, with an annual allocation of Rs.672 crore.

Initially, the scheme was introduced in 119 schools, with one in each Assembly constituency. It was later planned to expand to one school per mandal, and further to two or three schools per mandal.

The scheme evoked a good response from students, which was evident from increasing attendance in several schools back then. With a change in the ruling in 2023, the Congress government abandoned the breakfast scheme by not allocating funds, causing it to come to a halt.

In addition to the breakfast scheme, the previous BRS government had also introduced ragi malt, which is being provided three times a week to curb anaemia among children. Since its launch, each student is being given ragi porridge comprising 10 grams each of ragi powder and jaggery.