After successfully running the first Aam Aadmi Canteen on pilot basis for 20 days, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government is planning to set up 100 such canteens for the poor and downtrodden in the national Capital this year. Underlining that “prevention is better than cure”, Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain told The Pioneer that the party’s main mission behind this large scale initiative is to bring down the load on health sector by providing hygienic and nutritious food at low prices to citizens, particularly the poor and the downtrodden who find it difficult to have a proper meal.
“Providing hygienic and nutritious food at cheap rates would bring down the diseases and poor health conditions of the poor and destitute of the city. We have figured out a shocking effect of poor diet on physical health of children from poor families. While some are shorter, some are taller than the normal. Our focus is to prevent such disparity and poor-health condition,” he said.
Satyender Jain said many people die due to diseases like dysentery in Delhi. “While, we need proper healthcare scheme to curb this menace, we could prevent many such diseases by giving hygienic and nutitrious food to people,” he asserted.
After one month, the Minister will review performance of the Aam Aadmi Canteen at lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan (lNJP) Hospital which was inaugurated by AAP Government on January 19. The canteen, which was opened on pilot basis, only served lunch at Rs10. The lunch is served in an acrylic plates and each thali comprises two rotis, rice, vegetable (change with menu), and dal, curry or chholey.
Satyender Jain said, “Now the Government is going to provide three-time meals including breakfast, lunch and dinner in the future projects.”
He also said the Aam Aadmi Canteen at the hospital is being managed by the hospital’s staff. For the rest of the canteens, the Government is yet to decide whether the management would be outsourced or arranged through a different mode, he added.
Jain said that the people of Delhi need to be awaked and informed about the facts that unless they have healthy and clean living conditions the health problems would not get resolved just by visiting for treatment at the Government hospitals.
“This is precisely the reason for the AAP Government to plan these canteens and initiatives of providing the best school education…We want the people of Delhi essentially the poor and downtrodden to also get a healthy and happy life. This would happen only by raising the standard of living through clean and nutritious food as well as education,” Jain said.
last year, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia while presenting Budget said that Rs10 crore have been set aside for the Aam Aadmi Canteens in the line with Tamil Nadu Government’s highly-subsidised “Amma canteens”.
The project saw light of the day after must delay as Ashish Khetan, vice-chairman of the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), an advisory body to the Government which drafted this proposal, had affirmed on July 16, 2015 that the first few canteens would be operational in “two months and possibly before Independence Day”.
Manish Sisodia had said that the functioning of this canteen would be monitored and coordinated by a “Bureau of Affordable Meals”.