Karimnagar: Eggs vanish from mid-day meals as prices soar, schools struggle to feed students

The government had introduced a plan to serve eggs to students in government schools on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to ensure they receive nutritious meals. However, suppliers have halted egg deliveries for the past three weeks due to a rise in egg prices. While the government provides Rs 5 per egg, the market price has increased to Rs 7 each.

Karimnagar: Eggs have disappeared from the mid-day meals during the last few days. Agencies which are involved in providing mid-day meals are not serving eggs to students in view of the skyrocketing prices of eggs in the market.

The government has included serving of eggs to students in government schools to provide nutritious food being served to students on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in a week. However, the suppliers have stopped providing eggs for the last three weeks following the hike in egg prices. The Government provides Rs 5 per each egg, but in the open market the price has touched Rs 7 each.

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Though there are various reasons for the hike in the price, it has become a huge burden for mid-day meal workers, Except for a few, almost all agencies have stopped servicing eggs right from the beginning of this month.
On the other hand, agencies were not paid egg bills during the last one year. Besides egg charges, payment of mess charges have also been pending from September last. Since the pending bills have become a huge burden for them, they are unable to spend huge amounts on purchasing eggs.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Mid-Day meal workers association district president, Burra Manjula justified stopping the egg in view of the steep hike in the prices. On November 26, they brought the issue of hike in the price of eggs to the notice of DEO. Education department’s principal secretary as well as commissioner of school education were also given representations but there was no response from them.

They asked the DEO to allow them to at least provide bananas in place of eggs. However, the proposal was turned down. And now some of the headmasters were threatening the agencies to stop their services, if they failed to serve eggs. Scared of warnings, a few agencies were serving eggs by bearing additional burden, she informed. Hike in price of eggs has become a huge burden for agencies, which are already in trouble due to pending bills. Agencies were serving meals by borrowing money from private money lenders at 2 percent interest.