Though under ‘Mukhya Mantri Dal-Bhaat Yojna’ the services are meagre and quality is below standard, yet this popular scheme is serving the ‘needy’ people and their families with a stomach-full meal at cheap rate.
A rickshaw-puller, Vinod Kumar said, “Earlier I had to shell out between Rs 25 to Rs 35 per day for lunch. It was a lot, given my daily income is between Rs 100 to Rs 125. Though food isn’t nutritious and hygienic at all yet it is a boon for me as now I sleep full stomach.”
“My main priority is to fill my stomach. In the times of price hike, getting food for just Rs 5 is beyond expectation. Though the food may not be nutritious in it, still it is satisfying my hunger,” said Amol Mahto, an auto driver.
On an average around 250- 300 people, visit each dal-bhaat centers in city for lunch every day. Of these, 100 are regular visitors who have their food at the center that is open on all days.
Uday Shankar, who runs dal-bhaat centre at Town hall said, “Everyday around 200-250 people visit here. Persons who come here for lunch seem to be in a hurry as most of them are daily wage earners, rickshaw pullers, roadside vendors and students of some college. They come here, have their food quickly and go to work.”
“As these people cannot afford to have lunch even at roadside stalls so they come here and are lest bothered about nutrition and quality of the food,” he added. The situation is no different at the Sadar Hospital centre where about 350 rickshaw pullers, students and attendants of patients, come to have lunch every day.
“Unlike other centers, which start at 11am, we serve food from 9.30am. Much to your surprise, the number of people coming here didn’t go down even after we stopped serving mixed vegetable with soya chunks and red gram since April,” said Shruti Devi. She further added, “Instead of mixed vegetable, the centre is providing vegetable made of bottle gourd and potato. Till March 31, we used to get subsidized soya chunk and red gram. But when Government stopped providing it we came up with this option and still the number of visitors remains the same.”
Jharkhand State Government on August 15 2011 launched the ‘Mukhya Mantri Dal-Bhaat Scheme’, under which lunch was given to BPl families at Rs 5. To execute this scheme, 100 food centers in all 24 districts were opened.