70,000 primary school children to get free meals

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to provide free meals to public sector primary schools’ children in urban areas of all divisional headquarters of the province.

This decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Monday.

Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Faisal Khan Tarakai, Advisor to the Chief Minister on Finance Muzamil Aslam, Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah and other senior officials of the concerned departments attended the meeting.

It was decided in the meeting that initially, the initiative will be started on pilot basis in Abbottabad and Swat which will later be extended to other divisional headquarters of the province. Under the proposed program, around 70,000 children will be provided with free and quality food daily. The program has been estimated at Rs500 million annually which will be borne by the provincial government.

It was further decided that a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between the Social Welfare Department and the private welfare organization for the implementation of the proposed program. 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 all the details in this regard and submit it to the provincial cabinet for final approval.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the proposed program was another important welfare initiative of the incumbent provincial government, under the program free and quality food would be provided to the children of government schools. It will also help to increase enrollment in government schools and the provincial government will provide funds for this purpose on priority basis. He said spending maximum resources on people is part of the vision of Imran Khan and PTI, and the incumbent provincial government will also start more such welfare projects. He directed the concerned authorities to finalize the action plan as soon as possible for practical progress in the implementation of the proposed program.