Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik government will provide free uniforms to all students from Classes I-VIII, a gazette notification issued on Tuesday stated.

At present school uniforms are provided to all the girl students and ST, SC and below poverty line (BPL) boys studying in Classes I-VIII in government-run primary and upper primary schools financed by by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan funds. However, students above poverty level (APL) in these classes in government-aided schools did not get uniform. The state will bear the cost of free uniforms.

School and mass education secretary P.K. Mohapatra said: "After careful consideration of government, it has been felt necessary to provide uniform to all the children studying in elementary classes without any discrimination to make them feel comfortable for pursuing their studies in government and government-aided schools."

Uniform to the children will be provided through the school management committees and no additional staff will be engaged or appointed for the purpose, the government has made it clear.

Besides uniforms, the state government has also decided to provide school bags to Class 1 students.

The state government will bear the cost towards providing uniform to APL boys studying in government primary and upper primary schools. According to the officials, the government would spend Rs 400 for two pairs of uniform per child and for each school bag it will pay Rs 125.

In another major decision, the state government has decided to decentralise the supply of eggs to schools and empower the school management committees to procure eggs from the local market, farmers and cooperative society on the particular date as per the menu fixed.

Earlier, the Orissa State Poultry Products Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd (Opolfed) used to supply the eggs. But it was found that there was problem in storing the eggs as Opolfed was supplying eggs for one or two weeks at a time.

"There is also possibility of eggs rotting and teachers wasting precious time to keep the poultry products fresh. Similarly, one time supply of eggs on the first day of the week, keeping the average attendance in schools in mind, was leading to wastage or shortage of eggs as actual attendance could vary. Rotten eggs are a major cause of food poisoning," the official said.

The state government is likely to add fish to the midday meal menu in the state. At present nearly 5.10 lakh students are being covered under the scheme.

Chain snatcher held

Jagatsinghpur police arrested a chain-snatcher from a busy road of district headquarters township on Friday. The accused Debabrata Sahu , 35, had snatched a gold chain from a college girl. As the victim raised alarm, local residents overpowered them and handed them over to the police.