- Signs MoU with District Administration and Naandi Foundation for providing nutritious mid-day meal in Lanjigarh, Kalahandi district, Orissa.
- 17000 children from 235 schools in the districts to be benefited by the program
Vedanta Aluminum Limited, Lanjigarh signed a Memorandum of Understanding with District Administration of Kalahandi and Naandi Foundation for providing mid-day meal in Lanjigarh block of the district. The program will provide nutritious food to 17000 children in 235 schools in Lanjigarh block. The project aims at improving the nutritional status of children in classes I-VIII in government aided schools and encourage poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Shri R.S. Gopalan, IAS, District Collector and Magistrate, Kalahandi; Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Vedanta Aluminium Limited, Lanjigarh; and Ms. Leena Joseph, National Head (Mid-Day Meal), Naandi Foundation at office of the Collector, Bhawanipatna on February 13, 2009. In the MoU signing ceremony, Collector and District Magistrate said that the administration would extend all support to make this program a success. Dr Mukesh Kumar said, “In line with the Millennium Development Goal, the program will further to minimize the cases of malnutrition by providing nutritional food cooked in the Centralized Kitchen managed by internationally renowned professional body.Better nourished children perform significantly better in school, partly because they enter school earlier and thus have more time to learn but mostly because of greater learning productivity per year of schooling”. The program has been guided by Dr. Mona Sharma, IAS, Principle Secretary Ministry of Women and Child Development
As per the MoU, school children shall be provided freshly cooked food under this program. Vedanta Aluminium will develop a centralised kitchen, where the food shall be cooked and sent to schools. The company will also bear the cost of transportation. Naandi Foundation shall be responsible for cooking and management of the centralised kitchen and also for delivering the food at the doorsteps of the schools. The district administration shall provide ration and other necessary items as per the Mid-Day-Meal scheme of the government.
Mr. Rajesh Rajan, Manager (CSR), VAL; Mr. Jagannath Mohanty, Sub-Collector, Dhramagarh and Dr. Ajay Mishra, Professor, Govertnment Womens’ College were present in the MoU signing ceremony.
Education and nutrition has always been focus of Vedanta’s CSR Initiative. The company is running 39 childcare centers and supporting 400 anganwari centre, where children are provided pre-school education and nutritious food in different villages of Lanjigarh block.
Naandi Foundation is one of the leading social sector organization, founded by Dr Reddy’s. The organization based in Hyderabad and has interventions in health, nutrition and education areas. Mid-Day Meal through centralized kitchen is one of the flagship interventions by the development organization. At present it provides mid-day meal to about ten lakh school children in four states. In Orissa, Naandi has similar program at Ganjam.
About the Company:
Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) has set up a Greenfield Alumina Refinery in Orissa with a capacity of 1 Million tons per annum. It is also setting up a 0.5 MTPA Aluminum Smelter, 1215 MW Captive Power Plant. The Group Company Sterlite Energy Limited is also setting up a 2400 MW Independent Power Plants at Jharsuguda. VAL is one of the world’s premier alumina refining complex in terms of its technology, human resources and high quality infrastructure. VAL has built a high caliber team who are passionately contributing to the growth and efficiency of the organization.
For Further Query Contact Please visit our website at
Mr Bibek Chattopadhyay www.vedantaaluminium.com
Bibek.c@vedanta.co.in
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete