Tiruvannamalai Collector’s idea for petitioners is ‘food for thought’
TIRUVANNAMALAI: The 600 odd members of the public, who came to the Tiruvannamalai Collector’s office to hand over petitions to Collector KS Kandasamy, during the weekly grievances day meet were pleasantly surprised when they were asked to stay back and partake of a sumptuous lunch before returning home, officials revealed on Tuesday.
An innovative idea of Kandasamy was the result of the district head understanding that many, mostly poor, travel nearly 100 kilometres to attend the weekly grievances meet.
With the idea in mind, he built a kitchen in the Collectorate at a cost of Rs 15 lakh and spent another Rs 50,000 to purchase the necessary vessels. Asked about provisions, the Collector said, “we get about two bags of rice from the civil supplies godown, which is on the verge of being spoilt and hence is usually pilfered. We get vegetables from the agricultural marketing committees, dal and related ingredients from the cooperative department and gas from the local gas supplier.”
Asked about the name “Iraivanin Samayal Arai” (God’s kitchen) for the cookhouse, he said “feeding the poor is akin to serving God and hence we opted for that name.”
Asked whether this would be a continuing feature he said “as of now we plan to feed only petitioners who come for the weekly grievances day meet. However, we are also thinking of using the kitchen for the special camps we conduct for the differently abled on the Collectorate campus.”
Asked about the cooks, he said “cooks from the different government hostels in the town take turns cooking here once a month on a rotational basis.”
Needless to say the move has been welcomed by the public.