Naveen Patnaik sanctions Rs 117 crore for cooks, helpers of midday meal scheme

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sanctioned Rs 117.73 crore financial assistance for cooks and helpers engaged in preparing and serving the mid-day meals in schools across the state.

Patnaik also sanctioned Rs 500 each to 1.09 lakh women cooks and helpers to purchase a saree each. An amount of Rs 5.45 crore was deposited in their bank accounts on Tuesday, a CMO release said on Wednesday.

The mid-day meal is being served in about 50,000 schools where more than 45 lakh students are served with mid-day meal through 4,730 Mission Shakti Groups, it said.