Resentment is brewing among city residents over the change of an Aahaar outlet location. The sites of the low-cost midday meal scheme for urban poor to be launched in the city on April 1 were earlier fixed at the Badambadi bus terminus, Cuttack railway station and the two prominent Government hospitals in the city. But the nodal agency of the scheme, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), has suddenly decided to change the location of one of the outlets, triggering discontentment among the people residing in the vicinity of the railway station.
The civic body has changed the outlet from the railway station to Malgodown, allegedly under pressure of a lobby which runs a chain of roadside hotels around the railway station. The scheme is aimed at providing a lunch comprising a plate of rice and dalma for a meagre Rs 5. Costing around Rs 20, the meal is subsidised by the cash-rich Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
“Soon after the announcement of the outlet sites, the roadside restaurants in the railway station localities mounted pressure on the CMC to change the location to Malgodown apprehending their business to suffer,” said a resident of Station Bazaar. When contacted, CMC Deputy Mayor Ajay Barik said he was not consulted when the location was changed. He, however, assured that an Aahaar outletr would be opened at the railway station soon after assessing the situation.