The mid-day meal scheme was renamed PM Poshan Yojana

(PTI) New delhi date. 3

The National Mid-day Meal Scheme run in government and grant aided schools has been renamed as PM Nutrition Scheme. The scheme will also cover kindergarten and pre-primary classes, the government said today.

The PM nutrition scheme was approved in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi today. Under this scheme, lunch will be provided to 11.40 crore children of more than 11.5 lakh government schools. Currently, the government has decided to run the scheme for the next five years. This will cost a total of Rs 1.31 lakh crore.

The new scheme will also promote date meals. On the occasion of the festival, people serve food to government school children. Under the PM nutrition scheme, cooked food will be provided to school children.

Announcing this, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters that the PM Nutrition Scheme was approved at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. Under this scheme, government and government grant run schools. Hot cooked food will be given to 1st to 3rd year students.

The scheme will now also cover pre-primary and kindergarten students. The central government will spend Rs 5,081.5 crore on this scheme and Rs 512.12 crore will be recovered from the state governments. However, the central government will spend Rs 2,000 crore separately for foodgrains.