Kamavarapukota, Oct. 13: The minister for minor irrigation, Mr Maganti Venkateswara Rao, ina-ugurated the mid-day meal scheme meant for high sch-ools students in West Goda-vari district on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that about 4.30 lakh high school students were to be given meals at a cost of Rs 20 crore. He said that the ongoing mid-day meal programme was supporting students up to class VIII with the financial assistance from the Centre. He said that the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, had issued directions for extension of the mid-day meal programme even for students of classes IX and X and added that state government would bear the entire expenditure for implementation of the scheme. He said that the extended meal programme was scheduled to be implemented in 423 high schools in the district. He felt the need to constitute teams with students to keep a tab on proper implementation of the meal scheme and vowed surprise checks on schools on his part to ensure its proper implementation. Already Rs 6.81 crores were sanctioned for the mid-day meal at high schools in the district and nearly 369 tonnes of rice were released as quota for October. With the extended meal programme, nearly 1.84 lakh students from classes IX and X were going to be benefited, the minister said and added that nearly 2,988 tonnes of rice was going to be allocated for the meal programme from November 2008 to April 2009 in the district. The collector, Ms G. Jayalakshmi, said that committees would be formed with students from classes IX and X to ensure proper implementation of the meal programme. She also asked school heads to keep a tab on the programme. Elsewhere in Pedapudi, the Sampara MLA, Mr Anisetty Bullabbayi Reddy, inaugurated the midday meal scheme at the local Gandhi Memorial Government High School on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, the MLA said that the scheme was extended to high schools for the benefit of economically poor students. He appealed to officials to take measures for effective implementation of the scheme. High School headmaster Varanasi Subrahmanyam explained details of student strength and measures initiated in maintaining cleanliness in the premises for implementation of the mid day meal scheme.