HYDERABAD: The five-rupee Annapurna Meal Scheme which people are used to getting from small and cramped stalls is all set to undergo changes, allowing residents to dine in halls with proper seating arrangements, decent cafe ambience, lighting, drinking water and toilet facilities by having spacious Annapurna canteens in the GHMC Kukatpally zone. There will be five such canteens in the five GHMC circles of KKP zone.
GHMC’s Kukatpally Zonal Commissioner V Mamatha said that one such Annapurna canteen was built in front of the zonal office at Moospet on a pilot basis, while another four will come up in Kukatpally, Alwal, Gajularamam and Quthbullapur circles for which sites have been identified and works will begin soon. Each canteen has been built at an estimated cost of `7.5 lakh. In next phase, about 22 wards which fall in the zone would also have such canteens as the sites are being identified.
Presently, people coming to the stalls to have meals are forced to stand in the open and eat from the paper plates without any proper facilities like drinking water and toilet facilities. There are about 200 Annapurna canteens in the GHMC limits with over 60,000 people, mostly the poor and daily wage labourers, who seek the services.