We are following Centre's guidelines: Mamata Banerjee on dining room diktat for schools

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee today defended her govt's directive to build dining halls in schools with 70 per cent minority students. She said that her govt was merely following Centre's guidelines.

Clarifying her govt's stand, she said, "The circular was worded in the manner to figure whether minority students are in greater numbers so that we could channelise Minority Welfare Department funds into this scheme. That's the govt of India's guideline. We are following that. It's a technical matter, nothing more. The idea is to pool in funds from different departments so that the scheme can be effectively implemented. It was not supposed to divide students in any way."