BENGALURU: Rajesh S N, an ambulance driver from Chikkaballapur, had just dropped off a patient from Gowribidanur at Trinity Hospital in Jayanagar on Wednesday. Hungry, he was looking around to grab a meal when he noticed the Indira canteen posters which mentioned meals for Rs.10.
“I came looking for the canteen. To my surprise, food was served free. I had the tasty vangibhath, rice-sambar and curd rice,’’ an excited Rajesh said.
Rajesh could not believe that meals will be served for just `10 in a city like Bengaluru. “I wish we have similar neat canteens in my place. This will help people like us,’’ he said.
Vanajakshi and her sister Geetha, both flower vendors from Byrasandra, were also there. “We string flowers and sell them. Since we leave for K R Market early in the day to buy flowers, we get no time to prepare food. We usually carry rice prepared the previous night. We cannot afford food in darshinis. But this price seems to be so good,’’ Vanajakshi said.
Suvarna from Rama Mandir Road in Basavanagudi said, “I went to some of the small eateries, but they were closed today. So I walked a little distance to reach this Indira Canteen. The vangibhath is very good, I did not expect this,’’ she said.Vinay Shetty (27) of Cheftalk Food and Hospitality Services, who was among the seven staffers serving people at the canteen, said they had prepared food for 6,000 people on Wednesday.
BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said food inspectors will inspect the canteens frequently to monitor the food quality.A senior BBMP official said a total of 27 master kitchens will be set up across the city to cater to all the 198 canteens. Of these, 14 are ready and six are already operational.
Shortage of plates
The canteen staff were seen struggling to cater to the rush due to a shortage of plastic plates. Since they had only about 500 plates, many were served food in areca leaf plates. Policemen posted on duty were even seen rinsing the plastic plates used by others. “What else we can do? We are here since morning. If we wait till someone clean the plates, we will remain hungry,’’ a policeman said.