Rahul Gandhi launches 'Indira Canteen' in Bengaluru

Agencies
August 16, 2017

Bengaluru, Aug 16: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today launched the Karnataka government's subsidised food canteens 'Indira Canteen' here that would provide breakfast at Rs five and lunch and dinner at a cost of Rs 10.

Apparently taking the cue from the popular 'Amma canteens' in Tamil Nadu, introduced by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the Siddaramaiah government had announced setting up of the canteens in the state budget for 2017-2018.

Initially referred to as 'Namma Canteen', the name was later changed to'Indira Canteen' as Congress legislators sought to give apolitical touch to the populist announcement ahead ofthe Assembly polls early next year by naming it after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

An amount of Rs 100 crore was provided in the budget to set upthe canteens in 198 wards of Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP).

Congratulating the state government for the canteen programme, Gandhi said it is designed to make sure that not a single person in Bengaluru goes hungry.

Calling the world an "unfair place", the Congress vice president, who also had a lunch at the canteen, said it is targeted at the working class like construction workers and auto rickshaw drivers.

"There are many people in this city who live in huge houses and have plenty of food, who drive in big cars and for them food is not a big issue..but there are millions of people in Bengaluru like construction workers, those who own small shops, autorickshaw or taxi drivers, barbers and peoplewho don't get that much money, and it is those people at whomthis Indira Canteen is targeted," he said.

"We want the people from poorest and weakest sections inBengaluru to feel that they will no have to stay hungry in this city. There cannot be a single minute where a poor person inBengaluru is hungry. We want every single person to know andunderstand that," he added.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress GeneralSecretary in-charge of the state K C Venugopal, the party's state unit chief G Parameshwara and Bengaluru in-charge Minister K J George, among others were present at the event.

Taking pride over the Congress government conceptualising such a canteen, Gandhi said the intention was that the quality of food and cleanliness in it be the same as the most expensive restaurants in Bengaluru.

"I would like the government to pay special attention to this fact that the canteen should have excellent quality food, excellent hygiene and people walking out of this canteenmust feel that they not only had safe food, but tasty food.I think we owe this to every single citizen," he said.

He said that the chief minister had informed him about extending the programme to other cities of the state.

In the first phase, 101 canteens were launched today and the remaining 97 will start functioning from October 2, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials said.

Though it was initially proposed to have 198 canteens launched by the Independence Day, the number was later brought down to 125 owing to constrains related in getting land for construction of canteens in all the wards.

A total of 27 kitchens will be set up across the city to cater to these canteens, of which 14 are ready and six are currently in working condition.

According to officials, the canteens as of now will serve 500 plates of food, keeping in mind the budgetary allocation, and this is likely to be increased in the future.

Claiming that BBMP had ensured that project take shape to this level within 60 days after getting the order on June 12, officials said construction of canteens is being undertaken by KEF Infra Ltd, while Rewards, and Cheftalk Food and Hospitality Services have given the catering contract for the canteens.

Comments

Mohammed
 - 
Thursday, 17 Aug 2017

Superb project...Rapid Constrution work...Hope govt. maintains well..

Hari
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

Great.. quality food for cheaper price..

Kumar
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

Who will give funds for that.. Our Modiji.. Modiji ki Jai

Sangeeth
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

Cong people will loot much more in that..

Ganesh
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

Another way to loot money. 

Rajeev
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

Great... should have one here in Mangaluru

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News Network
July 14,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 14: More than 80 Namma Metro workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bengaluru on Tuesday, said Yashwanth Chauhan BL, public relations officer of Namma Metro.

"All safety and treatment protocols would be followed at the camps," he added.

These workers were staying in a camp near Nagavara-Gottigere lane, reach-6 of phase two. More than 200 contract workers of Larsen and Toubro who had come from different states have been tested after a labourer complained of fever.

All coronavirus positive workers were shifted to a COVID care centre while others were kept in isolation as per the guidelines.

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News Network
February 12,2020

Belagavi, 12: Even though the investigation into the four abandoned country pistols that were recovered by the Karnataka police on the outskirts of Waghawade village in Belagavi taluk last weekend did not make any headway, the police are verifying if the weapons had been used by the assassin of Gauri Lankesh for training.

Four country pistols were found abandoned on the outskirts of Waghawade on Sunday. Locals informed that the police had taken the weapons for inspection.

Prima facie it appeared that the weapons were rusted and had not been used for long. Cases had been registered against unidentified persons and investigations were in progress.

After reports that the weapons could have been used for training by the assassin of Gauri Lankesh in the forests in Khanapur, a few kilometres away from the spot wherein they were found, police have been looking into this angle too.

Sources said the condition of the weapons indicated that they have not been used for decades but to allay doubt all aspects were being looked into.

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News Network
July 8,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 8: Karnataka on Wednesday reported the biggest single-day spike of 2,062 coronavirus cases and a record 54 fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 28,877 and the death count to 470, the health department said.

778 COVID-19 patients were also discharged after recovery in the state.

Out of the fresh cases reported today, 1,148 cases were reported from Bengaluru alone with 22 deaths.

The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on July 5 with 1,925 cases.

As of July 8 evening, cumulatively 28,877 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 470 deaths and 11,876 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said out of 16,527 active cases, 16,075 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and stable, while 452 are in ICU.

The dead include 22 from Bengaluru urban, Dharwad seven, Ballari four, three each from Hassan and Raichur, two each from Ramanagara, Chikkaballapura, Vijayapura, Tumakuru, Mysuru, and one each from Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, Kalaburagi, Chikkamagaluru and Bengaluru rural.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,148 cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada 183, Dharwad 89, Kalaburagi 66, fifty nine each from Ballari and Mysuru, Bengaluru rural 37, Ramanagara 34, Chikkaballapura 32, 31 each from Udupi and Haveri, Bidar 29, Belagavi 27, Hassan 26, and 24 each from Bagalkote and Tumakuru.

While Chikkamagaluru reported 23 cases, it was 20 in Mandya, Uttara Kannada 19, Davangere 18, 17 each from Raichur and Shivamogga, Kolar 16, 11 each from Yadgir and Koppal, Gadag five, Vijayapura four, and Chitradurga two.

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with 12,509 infections, followed by Kalaburagi 1,816 and Dakshina Kannada 1,534.

Among discharges, Bengaluru urban tops the list with 2,228 discharges, followed by Kalabuagi 1,351 and Udupi 1,178.

A total of 7,59,181 samples were tested so far, out of which 19,134 were tested on Wednesday alone.

According to the bulletin, so far 7,11,319 samples have been reported as negative, and out of them 16,503 were reported negative today.

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