Government to provide food for malnourished students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 1999, 14:42 GMT]
The Presidential Secretariat announced today that free milk biscuits will be distributed among grade one students in four districts of the island.

Children from poor households are to be given free milk biscuits containing protein vitamins and calcium in the districts of Badulla, Monaragala, Hambantota, and Ratnapura for six months as an experiment.

Seventy one million rupees will be allocated to the Districts to implement the program. The children are to be given the nutritional biscuits at 9 a.m. The plan will be implemented from September 1.

The government has identified the four districts as having a high proportion of undernourished children. The announcement can be considered a public relations exercise for the upcoming election to be held next year.

Several Tamil politicians have criticised the move as proving the two faced policy of the Government.

The Tamil politicians say that essential items like food and medicine have been blocked from going into Tiger controlled parts of the Vanni but at the same time the PA regime is providing free food in provinces which have a Sinhala majority.