One month since they were inaugurated outside Chennai, the Amma Unavagams can safely be declared a success. While they have gained widespread appreciation on a number of fronts, there has been one complaint across the 90 centres inaugurated by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on July 2.
The centres, customers say, run out of food quickly. They have urged the government to take the popularity of Amma Unavagams into account and increase both the quantity of food being served as well as the number of outlets.
Each centre has a target of selling 1,200 idlis, 300 plates of sambar rice and 300 plates of curd rice in a day. This target is met each and every day, with some centres selling over and above the target. The 90 Amma Unavagams in nine cities on average sell 1.17 lakh idlis, 31,000 plates of sambar rice and 26,000 plates of curd rice each day.
The most solid sales figures come from Thoothukudi, where the 10 Amma Unavagams sell 40 per cent over the target every day. Officials attribute this to the location of the outlets, as well as the lack of proper alternative options for food in the city.
The customer count, however, drops on holidays and festivals.
Each morning, members of women’s self-help groups who run the Amma Unavagams prepare an average of 1,250 idlis using 25 kg of rice, and use 36 kg of rice for preparing 650 plates of sambar rice and curd rice at each outlet.
“Everything is sold out soon after we open the centre. Most days, an hour is all it takes,” says M Punitha, a staff member at an Amma Unavagam in Coimbatore. And this gives rise to the only other thing customers have to say about the Amma Unavagams apart from enthusiastic endorsements.
Women staff members at a number of centres say the toughest part of their day involves handling irate customers who stand in queue for a while only to find out that all the food had been sold out. A number of customers who spoke to Express at the Amma Unavagams appealed to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to increase the volumes, taking into account the wide support for the project.