Hyderabad: Rajasthanis always ready to serve the needy

Hyderabad: The north Indian community, which takes the initiative and jumps into the forefront to serve in times of emergencies, has been doing yeomen service in providing food to the needy during the lockdown period in Hyderabad.

The community under the banner of Rajasthani Pragathi Samaj has doing its bit by cooking food for nearly 3,000 persons every day. The food is prepared in a hygienic kitchen at Ghansi Bazar in Old City. Over 25 members are involved in cooking the food.

Kamlesh Gupta, who heads a catering unit in the city and prepares Prasad at Sham Mandir, said that importance was given to hygiene. The staff is asked to wash their hands before entering the kitchen.

Vegetables and ingredient packets are sanitised with mineral water for cleanliness. Everyday a variety of food is prepared by the Samaj representatives.

"We are serving items like tomato rice, pudina rice, fried rice and lemon rice. We cook and pack them in packets and hand over them to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) personnel.

The GHMC teams distributed in different localities in the city," said Rajasthani Pragathi Samaj general secretary Govind Rathi.

"We started the cooking from April 1 and till now we did not distribute food directly in order to maintain social distancing," said Govind Rathi.

Every day GHMC officials place the order for a specific number of people to be served and based on their request, the food is prepared and later the authorities transport the food to different localities, he said.

The GHMC personnel said that the food was being taken to slums in Chandanagar, Madhapur, Uppuguda and Guddimalkapur areas on Sunday.