Indonesia to halt free meals during school break

Indonesia will halt the government’s flagship free meals programme for children during school holidays and will also scale back the reach of the scheme, an official said late on Thursday, amid a drive to reduce pressure on the state budget. Here are some details: * The programme will stop from June 22 to July 13, said Agustina Arumsari, deputy head of the National Nutrition Agency, adding it will also be paused in school holidays in the future. Meals had been distributed during the school break last year. * The agency will stop funding meals for around 39,000 students in 76 schools in areas judged to have the economic capacity to meet nutritional needs, and shift the capacity to students in remote areas, she said. * She said the moves were part of a reorganisation and efficiency drive. An improvement in governance and oversight was promised after the arrest of its former head early this month on allegations of corruption linked to the programme. * The budget allocation for the progra