<span style="color: #222222;">Union Minister for Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has appealed states to start the evaluation process for board exam answer sheets. Mr Nishank said this while interacting with Education Ministers and Education Secretaries of all the States through video conferencing yesterday. </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The HRD Minister also asked the States to facilitate Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to evaluate answer sheets of the students in their respective states. Mr Nishank said that whole efforts should be that our 33 crore students do not face any difficulty and can continue their education. He said, towards this, various efforts are being made to strengthen the online education platforms like DIKSHA, Swayam, Swayam Prabha and  E-Pathshala. </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister also said that apart from this, alternative academic calendar has also been released by NCERT to which states can adopt according to their local situation. He said, the government has also  to prepare safety guidelines in case of opening of schools. Mr Nishank also announced around 11 per cent increase in annual Central allocation of cooking cost for procurement of pulses, vegetables, oil and fuel under Mid-Day Meal scheme to eight thousand 100 crore rupees from 7,300 crore rupees in view of situation arising out of COVID-19. </span><br />