Thursday, 30 September 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Hot cooked food for Class 1 to 8 students
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the roll-out of the “PM POSHAN in Schools” scheme that will provide hot cooked meals to students of Classes 1 to 8 in Government and Government-aided schools across the country.
The existing mid-day meal scheme will be subsumed into the PM Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme with the addition of several new components in it, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said while briefing media.
“The scheme will cover about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools across the country,” he said.
“The CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the continuation of ‘National Scheme for PM POSHAN in Schools’ for the five years, from 2021-22 to 2025-26, with a financial outlay of Rs54061.73 crore from the Central Government and Rs 31,733.17 crore from the State Governments and Union Territory administrations,” the Government said in a statement.
The Central Government will also bear the additional cost of about Rs45,000 crore on food grains. “Therefore, the total scheme Budget will amount to Rs 1,30,794.90 crore,” the statement added.
The Cabinet also decided to list ECGC (formerly known as Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd.) to infuse Rs 4400 crore capital in five years and also approved doubling of Rajkot-Kanalus, Nimach-Ratlam railway lines. Detailing the ECGC listing, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the Government has undertaken a series of measures to provide a boost to the exports sector.
The Minister also said the country’s exports till September 21, 2021, this fiscal were at USD 185 billion and may touch USD 190 billion by the end of the first of the financial year. The approved infusion along with efforts made to suitably synchronise with the listing process of ECGC through the Initial Public Offering will increase the underwriting capacity of ECGC to support more exports.
Goyal said Rs 500 crore will be infused in the ECGC immediately and another Rs 500 crore in the next financial year. The rest would be need-based. He also said the Government will start the process to list the State-owned entity soon, and the IPO would hit the market during the next financial year.
The doubling of the Rajkot-Kanalus railway line in Gujarat and the Nimach-Ratlam railway line in Madhya Pradesh is at an estimated cost of Rs 1,080.58 crore. “The total estimated cost of the project will be Rs 1,080.58 crore and its escalated completion cost is Rs 1,168.13 crore,” the Government said in a statement after the meeting. The total length of doubling of the line is 111.20 km and the project will be completed in four years.
