Enjoy a meal for Rs10 in Bengaluru
bengaluru — Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched the Karnataka government’s subsidised food canteens ‘Indira Canteen’ here that would provide breakfast at Rs5 and lunch and dinner at a cost of Rs10.
Apparently taking the cue from the popular ‘Amma canteens’ in Tamil Nadu, introduced by former chief minister Jayalalithaa, the Siddaramaiah government had announced setting up of the canteens in the state budget for 2017-2018.
Initially referred to as ‘Namma Canteen’, the name was later changed to ‘Indira Canteen’ as Congress MLAs sought to give a political touch to the populist announcement ahead of the Assembly polls early next year by naming it after former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
An amount of Rs1 billion was provided in the budget to set up the canteens in 198 wards of Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
Congratulating the state government for the canteen programme, Rahul said it is designed to make sure that not a single person in Bengaluru goes hungry.
Calling the world an “unfair place”, the Congress vice-president, who also had lunch at the canteen, said it is targeted at the working class like construction workers and auto rickshaw drivers.
“There are many people in this city who live in huge houses and have plenty of food, who drive in big cars and for them food is not a big issue..but there are millions of people in Bengaluru like construction workers, those who own small shops, autorickshaw or taxi drivers, barbers and people who don’t get that much money, and it is those people at whom this Indira Canteen is targeted,” he said.
“We want the people from poorest and weakest sections in Bengaluru to feel that they will not have to stay hungry in this city. There cannot be a single minute where a poor person in Bengaluru is hungry. We want every single person to know and understand that,” he added.
Taking pride over the Congress government conceptualising such a canteen, Rahul said the intention was that the quality of food and cleanliness in it be the same as the most expensive restaurants in Bengaluru. —