Amma Canteens flourish, Ayyah’s a non-starter

Bengaluru: The “Amma Canteen”  may be flourishing in Tamil Nadu, but Karnataka is unlikely to have similar “Ayyah Canteens.” 

The brainchild of minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, Dinesh Gundu Rao, the  canteen selling food at highly subisided rates was expected to be tried out in Bengaluru before being extended to the rest of the state.

Besides 'Ayyah Canteen” the other name doing the doing the rounds for the project was  'Siddu Canteen,”  with those drawing it up apparently keen on doing a  Jayalalithaa  in Karnataka and give Chief Minister Siddaramaiah the pleasure of seeing his name associated  with the outlets.

A team of officials from the Department of Food and Civil Supplies is said to have visited Tamil Nadu to study the hugely successful Amma Canteens to replicate them in Karnataka , but now the idea has been dropped, at least for now.

Confirming this,  Mr Gundu Rao told the Deccan Chronicle, "We had requested the Union government to consider our plea for releasing additional quota of foodgrains for this project to feed the poor.

However, the Centre turned us down. We then toyed with the idea of buying foodgrains directly from the market but that too was dropped as we were not sure  how much was available and whether we could meet the huge cost involved.”

The minister, however, added that he planned to dash off another letter to the Centre asking it to reconsider.

The idea is to open the canteens in four or five major hospitals of Bengaluru like Victoria, Bowring, K C General, and at railway stations and  bus stands besides the crowded Majestic area. 

Depending on their success, similar canteens could be opened in cities like Mysore, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mangaluru and Kalaburgi.

In Tamil Nadu, the Amma Canteens sell idlis for just a rupee and pongal/rice for between Rs 3 and Rs 5. Around 200 such canteens have been opened in Chennai alone, and another 100  in the rest of TN.