Amid the ongoing controversy over serving eggs in mid-day meal to students of government schools, school education minister Dr Premsai Singh in a statement on Wednesday said that government was not compelling any one to eat the non-vegetarian food.
“There is a choice among the students either to eat egg or they can opt for banana, milk and other protein-rich food”, the minister said.
On purchase of eggs, the minister said the department would decide it, but efforts would be made to purchase it locally so that local people could earn some money.
The serving of eggs should not be taken as a decision against a particular religious sect but should be viewed as an attempt to check malnutrition being suffered by more than 45% of the children of the state.
PCC Chief Mohan Markam too commenting on the issue saying now all the powers had been given to ‘Shala Vikas Samiti’ of the government schools to decide whether the eggs should be served or not and if it were to be served then how the serving should be done.
