– Reshma Ravishanker

Notwithstanding a growing crisis of LPG supply in Karnataka, NGOs supplying midday meals to government and aided schools have said that they have alternative plans in place to mitigate the crisis.

In Bengaluru, commercial supply of LPG has been hampered with hotels considering active alternatives while the wait time for availing a domestic cylinder is over 25 days. At this backdrop, there has been growing concerns over the provision of midday meals to children.

Over 56,000 schools in Karnataka are reliant on the supply via the mid-day meal programme (now implemented under PM POSHAN) is a major school nutrition initiative that supports millions of children studying in government and aided schools. The scheme provides cooked meals to over 19 lakh students from Classes I–VIII.

Responding to these concerns, Akshaya Patra Foundation said that the supply would remain unhampered as their reliance on LPG is minimal.

“Our efforts to nourish 2.35 million children remain fully protected. We currently hold over one month’s supply of LPG, ensuring uninterrupted supply of mid-day meals. Unlike conventional cooking setups, our centralised kitchens are predominantly steam-based with steam generated by boilers run by electricity or fueled by briquettes and PNG. This makes our operations inherently more resilient to fuel supply disruptions.

“Summer vacations will provide us with a natural buffer. Demand for our kitchens will be reduced significantly. This will give the supply chain the time to stabilize. We will coordinate with our stakeholders, including vendors, to ensure continuity of our services when schools reopen,”  Bharatarshabha Dasa, National President & Trustee, The Akshaya Patra Foundation said.

Meanwhile, another key supplier, Adamya Chetana which is founded by Tejaswini AnanthKumar, the wife of late BJP leader AnanthKumar said in a social media statement, “Two important considerations drove us to establish a No-LPG kitchen as early as 2009 -an approach that appears even more relevant today, especially during periods of oil crisis. The first was how to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move towards renewable sources of energy. The second was how to reduce our dependence on other countries for our energy needs. I am proud to say that today our mega kitchens save nearly 120 LPG cylinders every single day. Even more satisfying is the fact that the fuel we use at @adamya_chetana is generated from waste materials.”

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