Akhilesh Yadav to offer freebies

The success in bye-elections has made Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to offer freebies and this time it comes in form of subsidized nutritious food to the industrial workers two times a day.

The officials in the Department of labour and Enforcement have been asked to start an exercise to give subsidised food to the registered industrial workers. To begin with the project will start from lucknow as a pilot scheme and if it finds favour here it would be implemented in other parts of the state, a senior official told The Pioneer here on Wednesday.

The project is expected to start by the end of this month.Under this project the registered industrial worker would get nutritious food for less than Rs 20 per meal. “The pricing has not been finalized. It would be less than Rs 20 and it might come down further if State Government chips in with further rebate,” the official said. The food would be served in the morning and evening and would contain 6-8 chapatis and subzi with green salad. In some days dal would be added to the menu.

Government has plans to rope in Akshya Patra – an NGO – that is setting up a mechanized kitchen in Sarojini Nagar area, at the outskirts of the state capital in this scheme. Akshay Patra has got orders from the state government to provide nutritious food to students in the state-run schools in lucknow under the

mid-day meal scheme. It is already running a project in Mathura.

“Talks with Akshay patra is on preliminary stage. We cannot wait till the mechanized kitchen of Akshay patra gets ready. So, initially the project will start with the help of some noted caterers of the city and eventually Akshay Patra would be asked to take charge,” the official said.To start with the government would provide subsidized food to around 5,000 registered industrial workers in lucknow. They would be given a photo ID and a number based on that they would get their quota of food.

Is not pricing on higher side as workers could get food at Rs 15IJ

“Workers could get kacahuris for less than Rs 15 but it is not nutritious. We do not know the medium of cooking and but we know environment where it is cooked. In Charbagh area no one can vouch that food is nutritious and everyone knows the condition of roadside eateries. What the government is aiming at nutritious food that is cooked in hygienic manner under the supervision of officers from department of labour,” the official said.If the project finds favour in lucknow it would be implemented in Kanpur and Allahabad. According to government records there are over 1.5 lakh registered industrial workers in Uttar Pradesh. Majority of them are in Kanpur.