Anna canteens yet to overcome hiccups

Ongole: Anna canteens launched in the state to offer meal to the poor at subsidised price of Rs 5 are evoking good response from people, but facing hiccups even after one-week of their launch.

Inspired by Amma Canteens in Tamil Nadu, the TDP announced the Anna canteens as a part of the poll promise. After attaining power in the state, the TDP government took long time to finalise the menu, locations, agencies and budget for the scheme.

In the meantime, the TRS government in Telangana introduced Annapurna Canteens and the Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy introduced Rajanna Canteen to offer meal at Rs 5. So, the state government sent a team of municipal commissioners to Chennai and Hyderabad to learn about these subsidised canteens.

The team submitted a report to the government that about 3 lakhs of people are having lunch at 407 Amma Canteens in Chennai. The canteens are offering various varieties of rice at lunch for Rs 5 per plate and idly with chutney and sambar for Rs 5 as breakfast.

In Hyderabad, Annapurna canteens are offering rice with pickle, curry and sambar for Rs 5 and are supplying them to around 70,000 people daily. The Akashyapatra Foundation is supplying the food to canteens from a centralised kitchen and spending Rs 23 per plate, while the GHMC is bearing Rs 18 subsidy.

After a long round of discussions, the state government introduced Anna canteens at 60 plus places and offered breakfast, lunch and dinner at Rs 5. The Akshayapatra Foundation is supplying the food items from centralised kitchens at the cost of Rs 73 per day for the breakfast, lunch and dinner. The government is bearing the remaining Rs 58 as subsidy for three meals per person.

Vantari Benniyya, a daily wage worker from Koppole and a frequent visitor to Anna Canteen at Rythu Bazaar near Kothapatnam Bus Stand in Ongole, expressed satisfaction over the meals quality and quantity.

He said the poor like him can save Rs 50 when he didn’t bring lunch from home.  Eerla Chandrasekhar, an auto driver from Kothapatnam, also expressed the same opinion and suggested to the authorities to provide shade to wait for nearly an hour to receive the token.

Ankaiah, an auto driver from Vetapalem and regular guest to Anna Canteen at Chirala, said that he is not bringing lunch as the food served in the canteen is enough for him.

Velampalli Ramakrishna from Santhanutalapadu, is one of the visitors, who came late on Wednesday afternoon at Anna Canteen in New Vegetable Market in Ongole, said that the items like curd and sambar are not sufficiently available for the late comers. They should eat the rice with pickle only, he added.

Mannam Durga Prasad, the supervisor at Anna canteen at New Vegetable Market and K Raviteja, the supervisor at Anna canteen in Chirala, said the foot fall for canteen is increased from about 1,000 guests on the first day to nearly 1,800 in just three days.

They said that they are distributing tokens to batches of 30 to 40 people at a time to see the people eat food comfortably standing inside, while the remaining are forced to wait outside in long queues. 

They said that most people are poor, middle-class and daily wage workers and there are about a 100-150 new people regularly coming to taste the food. They said that they are making arrangements for food depending on the demand and confessed that serving extra sambar and curd to a few people is the reason for shortage of items for late comers. Ongole Municipal Commissioner Sankranti Venkata Krishna assured that there will be two more Anna canteens ready in town by next month to meet the demand.