Touted as a pilot project of the Arvind Kejriwal government, aimed at providing healthy, hygienic and wholesome meals at subsidized rates, the Aam Aadmi canteen project is yet to take off in a big way.
While 100 canteens had been proposed, the government has only been able to deliver one till date.
It was tipped to provide wholesome, nutritious food for a song to those, who often sigh at the sight of the city’s well-off digging into lip-smacking platters at plush eateries and wonder where their next meal is going to come from.
However, four years on, the Aam Aadmi Canteen, an idea largely borrowed from the widely successful and popular Tamil Nadu model — Amma Canteen — is yet to take wings in the national capital.
Sample this. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government proposed to set up 100 such canteens across the city at the fag end of 2015, a few months after it stormed the hustings riding on a landslide mandate.
In the years since, it has been able to deliver only one of them — at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, or LNJP as it’s better known.
Conceding that the Arvind Kejriwal regime has fallen far short of where the scheme ought to have been four years on, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the government is working on ‘rebooting’ the scheme.
“At present, there’s just one Aam Aadmi canteen being operated out of the LNJP hospital. We are trying to open more,” Jain told this newspaper.
Grand opening, but
The first and only Aam Aadmi canteen opened, amid much trumpeting by the Kejriwal regime and media spotlight, on January 19, 2017 at the government hospital in central Delhi.
Ensconced in the hospital’s new OPD block, one can find the canteen right next to the dietary department. As this correspondent dropped in at the one-room facility, an attendant was busy handing out coupons to customers for fetching a piping hot Thali, fresh from the kitchen.
The attendant was seated at one end of the hall. On enquiry, this correspondent was told that 1,500 such meals had already been served that day. It was learnt that the meals are available, at Rs 10 per plate, not just for visitors but also for the staff and attendants, till the canteen closes for the day.
The meals do find takers as visitors come in a steady trickle through the day, this correspondent was told.
“One of my relatives is admitted at the hospital. I have been visiting this canteen at the lunch hour over the last few days. While it offers a wide range of eatables at dirt cheap rates, I am not sure if the canteen is open at dinner time.
However, the food offered is more than sufficient considering the going rate. I find it more affordable to take my meals here than spending more on unhygienic food selling roadside,” Kameshwar Mandal, a regular visitor to the lone Aam Aadmi canteen, told this correspondent.
Raising a rosy vision
At the launch of the Aam Aadmi canteen, the government had said after successfully piloting the project for 20 days, it will set up 100 such canteens across the city for the needy.
Jain was quoted as saying at the time that the main objective behind the initiative was to reduce the load of patients at government hospitals by providing hygienic and nutritious food at cheap rates to people, who often find it hard to summon resources for a proper meal.
“Provision of nutritious food prepared in a hygienic manner would reduce the extent of diseases and ensure good health for the city’s poor and destitute. One simply can’t imagine the devastating impact that poor or unhealthy diet can have on children in poor households. While some are stunted, others are taller than normal. Our objective is to prevent such physical abnormalities and poor health,” Jain was quoted as saying in 2007.
Healthy and wholesome
The meals are served hot in acrylic plates. Each thali comprises two chapatis, a generous helping of steaming rice, sabzi (mixed vegetable curry), dal (lemtils) or chhole.
The canteen project took shape under the guidance of former AAP leader Ashish Khetan, in his capacity as the vice-chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), an advisory body to the government.
On July 16, 2015, the DDC, which drafted the proposal, said that the first few canteens would be made operational in “two months”.
The reality
However, Khetan stepped down from the advisory body and even walked away from active politics in the last two years, leaving the much-touted canteen project in limbo.
“This is how it has always been with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. If we care to examine any of the schemes that they have rolled out till date, reality stares you in the face.
While there was much brouhaha around their schemes at the time of launch, most didn’t go on to meet their desired objectives.
They made little or no change on the ground. While this (Aam Aadmi Canteen) scheme was used to garner publicity, it did little in the way of public welfare.
While 100 such canteens were proposed by the government, only one exists. The idea was noble, but the government failed when it came to putting it to practice,” said Congress leader Ajay Maken when quizzed on his take on the canteen project.
“This government had set aside Rs 60 crore for opening more such canteens across the city. The allocation was announced during the budget. However, the money was clearly not used for the purpose it was meant to serve. This is another failed scheme of the Kejriwal government,” said BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta.
Presently, the canteen is run by the hospital staff with some outsourced help, an official said. “The thali is popular with customers, who visit us at lunch hour,” said an attendant, asking not to be named.
Jasmine Shah, DDC chairman, said he had no clue what went wrong with the project and if there’s any hope or scope for reviving the project that once held much promise.
Amma Canteen: A brief history
Amma Unavagan, which literally translates to Mother’s Canteen, is a chain of government-owned and operated canteens offering a range of eatables at subsidized rates.
It was part of a targeted welfare scheme tailored by the Tamil Nadu government under the stewardship of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The first wave of canteens under this scheme was opened at five localities of Chennai. Later, many more were opened by municipal corporations across the state.
The scheme was aimed at benefitting the economically-disadvantaged sections of society. The idea of Aam Aadmi Canteen was largely borrowed from the Amma Canteen.