The situation is blamed on the lack of a "community kitchen" which is supposed to supply cooked food to the schools across the city. The plan to set this up was taken up by the KMC two years ago. Land was identified and the municipal headquarters had okayed the construction.

The first community kitchen was supposed to come up in the western part of the city in Garden Reach. But due to the "grand plan and low action theory" of the civic body, the plan has not materialised till date.

The design and mechanism of community kitchen was conceptualised after teams from the civic body visited similar set-ups in south India.

Kalyani Mitra, Member, Mayor-in-Council of the education department, admitting the delay in the start of the work, said: "The mid-day meal programme cannot run without a community kitchen. We are trying to speed up the process as much as possible."

Currently, it is the duty of the teachers of the KMC primary schools to take care of the mid-day meal programme. But these schools face a shortage of the teachers.