Indira canteens serve one crore meals in two months
BENGALURU: Indira Canteens crossed a major milestone - serving one crore meals across Bengaluru city in just a span of two-and-a-half months.Launched with much fanfare by the Siddaramaiah government on August 16, the canteens serve cheap and hygienic breakfast, lunch and dinner for the poor across 28 Assembly constituencies.
Efforts are now being made by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to improve the services through the use of technology and constant monitoring of quality and quantity of food that is daily prepared. And how much has the government spent to dish out one crore meals? Approximately `10.50 crore.
The government is spending `9.50 for breakfast, `11.25 for lunch and `11.25 for dinner while the customer spends just `5 for breakfast and `10 each for lunch and dinner.One centralised kitchen has been allotted per Assembly constituency with one canteen per ward.Presently, 15 centralised kitchens are functioning across the city while another five are ready with ongoing trials.Further, 154 Indira Canteens are functioning across Bengaluru with another 17 undergoing construction in many wards.
Mobile canteens soon
Some core wards in the city have no space for setting up Indira Canteens. So, BBMP is planning to launch ‘mobile canteens’, particularly in the Central Business District. One will soon see such vehicles parked in Majestic or Chickpet. The nodal officer for Indira Canteens, BBMP executive engineer, J R Nandeesh said, “The 1 crore feat was achieved a day or two ago. It has been a collective effort on the part of all the team members.”
No restriction on coupon purchase
Authorities have decided to serve 300gm of rice per person. People can go in for a second or a third helping. However, they have to buy one more coupon. There is no restriction on the number of coupons that can be purchased but it should not be done at one go.
Food quality test
The kitchens have staffers who taste the food and check every dish before they are sent to the canteens. Besides, Poojari says that once in three months, food samples are sent to labs for tests in order to rule out any contamination.
Massive workforce
The workforce is massive for running Indira Canteens. Presently, more than 3,000 labour force, 198 health inspectors, 28 commissioned officers and one chief officer (of Army Colonel grade) man the operations.
Video that went viral
The quality of food came under severe criticism after a video of lemon rice being mixed on a mat in an Indira Canteen went viral. Taking cue from this, the kitchen now mixes the spices into the food and only sends the final products to canteens.
Andhra Pradesh plans similar canteens
Impressed by the success of Indira Canteens, IAS officers from Andhra Pradesh as well as from Chittoor, Kurnool and Anantpur came to Bengaluru a week ago to see the operations. On Wednesday some engineers will visit from Andhra as they plan to replicate this in their state.