KP govt to provide free meals to schoolchildren

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtukhwa government has decided to provide free meals to the children in public sector primary schools. A handout said that under this initiative free meals would be provided to children in primary schools in urban areas of all divisional headquarters of the province.

This decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Faisal Khan Tarakai, Advisor to Chief Minister on Finance Muzammil Aslam, Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah and other officials attended the meeting.

Chief Executive Officer of the private welfare organization Allahwale Trust, Shahid Lone, also attended the meeting.The meeting decided that the initiative would be launched as a pilot project in Abbottabad and Swat and would be extended to other divisional headquarters later.

Under the proposed programme, around 70,000 children will be provided with free and quality food daily.It was decided that a memorandum of understanding would be signed between the Social Welfare Department and the welfare organization for the implementation of the proposed project.

In the meeting, it was decided to form a committee consisting of the officials of the Department of Education and Social Welfare to make progress in the implementation of the program, which will finalize the details and submit a report to the provincial cabinet for approval.

The chief minister said under the proposed programme, free food will be provided to the children of government schools.He said that it will help increase enrollment in government schools, adding that the provincial government would provide funds for this.