NEW2 DELHI: After much delay, Delhi today got its first subsidised canteen -- Aam Aadmi Canteen -- with the facility being inaugurated on a pilot basis at Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital. Attendants, staff and people visiting the LNJP Hospital can now have a meal for Rs 10. The Arvind Kejriwal government had proposed to set up such facilities in line with Tamil Nadu's highly-subsidised Amma canteens.
"The canteen would be run on a trial basis for one month during which we would only serve lunch. After one month, we will try to include dinner and then breakfast also in the scheme. Trial does not mean we will shut down after one month, it means we would only take it further up," Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said after inaugurating the canteen. "Aam Aadmi Canteen pilot project started at LNH hospital. Rs 10 per meal for all attendants, staff & people visiting the hospital," he tweeted. In pictures shared on his Twitter account, Jain can also be seen having the meal at the canteen. LNJP Director Dr J C Passey and other officials were also present. "It is a welcome move, especially for our junior doctors and patient attendants, who had to manage with unhygienic street food so far. "The meal would be served in an acrylic plate. Each thali would have two rotis, rice, vegetable (change with menu), and dal or curry or chholey.
A separate counter for buying meal tokens has been set up at the hospital premises," Passey told PTI. The project sees its fruition after a long delay as, Ashish Khetan, vice chairman of the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), an advisory body to the government which drafted this proposal, had affirmed on July 16, 2015 that the first few canteens would become operational in "two months and possibly before Independence Day". On March 28, the city government had alloted Rs 10 crore in its budget for setting up the 'Aam Aadmi canteens' across the city to provide subsidised food. "It is proposed to start Aam Aadmi canteens in Delhi for providing nutritious and hygienic food at low prices to citizens, particularly the poor and the downtrodden who find it difficult to have a proper meal, like rickshaw pullers, daily wage labourers and construction workers," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said while presenting the budget in the Assembly. The functioning of the canteens will be monitored and coordinated by a "Bureau of Affordable Meals", Sisodia had said.