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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Rahul Gandhi inaugurates ‘Indira Canteen’ in Bengaluru
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Rahul Gandhi inaugurates ‘Indira Canteen’ in Bengaluru

The 'Indira Canteen' is loosely modelled on the late Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa's 'Amma canteens'

The Indira Canteen, launched by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru, will serve three meals a day. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
The Indira Canteen, launched by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru, will serve three meals a day. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Bengaluru: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched the Indira Canteen scheme—a state government initiative named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi—aimed at providing food at low cost to the urban poor.

The canteen, located at Kanakanapalya in Jayanagar, an upscale locality in Bengaluru, is one of 101 such across various locations in the city on Wednesday.

To be sure, many of the Indira Canteens did not open for service on Wednesday.

The canteens are loosely modelled on late Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s ‘Amma Canteens’. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka is aiming to push its populist agenda in a city where its main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to have a strong presence in terms of assembly seats.

“There are millions of people in Bangalore; construction workers, people who own little shops, auto-rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, barbers. People who don’t make that much money and it is those people that this Indira Canteen is targeted at," Gandhi said.

The Indira Canteen will serve three meals unlike the Amma Canteens which only serves breakfast and lunch.

In his budget speech earlier this year, Siddaramaiah announced ‘Namma Canteens’ in all 198 wards of Bengaluru which would serve breakfast at Rs5 and lunch and dinner at Rs10.

The name was later changed to Indira Canteens as a tribute to the former prime minister on her 100th birth anniversary.

So far, Siddaramaiah’s Indira Canteens—the scheme has a budget of Rs100 crore—have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. There has been talk of misuse of funds, and the canteens have come under fire for their location (some are inside parks and temples, and a few have come up in heritage structures). The state government has been in a hurry to set them up ahead of next year’s assembly elections.

Siddaramaiah also announced the setting up of ‘Saviruchi canteens’ in other parts of the state (across 30 districts) this year.

“Programmes for the poor must be done in a hurry," Siddaramaiah said, clarifying that no playground or park was illegally encroached upon to set up the canteens as alleged by opposition political parties.

Siddaramaiah said that the remaining 97 canteens will be inaugurated on 2 October, taking the total to 198 across Bengaluru.

R.V. Devaraj, a Congress legislator from Chickpet in Bengaluru, said that each canteen would be able to serve 300 meals each for breakfast, lunch and dinner (a total of 900 meals). Going by that math, Indira Canteens (when all 198 are opened) will serve over 178,000 meals in a city that has a population of over 10 million.

Also read: JD (S) to launch Appaji Canteen in Bengaluru today

Political parties like the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) have also forayed into the subsidized food service space. T.A. Sharavana, a JD(S) member of the Karnataka legislative council, opened the first such venture, ‘Namma Deve Gowda Appaji Canteen’, in Bengaluru on 2 August (bit.ly/2uHQNVm).

The popularity of Amma canteens in Tamil Nadu inspired similar ventures in states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh but without the same success.

Chandan Gowda, political analyst and professor of sociology at the Azim Premji University, said that subsidized food services in urban areas is a populist move aimed at poor and lower middle class voters.

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Published: 16 Aug 2017, 02:29 PM IST
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