BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said the announcement of the Indira Canteens was not a political gimmick. “In Bengaluru alone, 28 per cent of children aged below five, 13 per cent women and 10 per cent men are malnourished. Many people do not even get to have two meals a day. With Anna Bhagya and the Indira Canteen schemes, we will strive to remove hunger from the state. It will also help reduce the number of people migrating to other states. Very soon, we will start similar canteens across the state,’’ he said.
The CM clarified that neither playground nor park spaces were used to construct Indira Canteens. But interestingly, the canteen on Kanakanapalya Main Road has been built on playground space.
“A total of 101 canteens are completed but the remaining 97 could not be opened due to lack of space. These will be inaugurated on Gandhi Jayanti,’’ he said. “We were criticised for starting this scheme in hurry, but I personally feel such initiatives for poor should be taken up in urgency,’’ he said. “Opposition parties are criticising our works just for the sake of criticing,’ he said.
Trains guns on Modi
Recalling late PM Indira Gandhi’s contributions, Siddaramaiah said she was an iron lady. She was the one who brought common people to the banks whereas PM Narendra Modi did the opposite.