Delhi Gets Its First Aam Aadmi Canteen At LNJP Hospital

After making food available to the needy and homeless in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party has now launched its first subsidized canteen – the Aam Aadmi Canteen – at Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital in New Delhi following much delay. The subsidized canteen, where attendants, staff, and visitors can have a proper lunch for just INR 10, has been proposed to set up such facilities in line with Tamil Nadu’s highly subsidized Amma canteens, as reported earlier.

“The canteen would be run on a trial basis for one month during which we would only serve lunch. After one month, we will try to include dinner and then breakfast also in the scheme. Trial does not mean we will shut down after one month, it means we would only take it further up,” Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said after inaugurating the canteen. “Aam Aadmi Canteen pilot project started at LNH hospital. INR 10 per meal for all attendants, staff and people visiting the hospital,” he tweeted.

Jain also shared pictures of the canteen’s inauguration event where he even had a meal at the canteen. The hospital’s Director Dr J C Passey and other officials were in attendance as well. “It is a welcome move, especially for our junior doctors and patient attendants, who had to manage with unhygienic street food so far. ”

Image: Delhi

Aam Aadmi Food

The food will be a set vegetarian meal with simple and sumptuous items. Served in an acrylic plate, each portion will include two rotis, rice, vegetable (which will change according to the daily menu), and dal or curry or chholey. To increase the ease and efficiency of the process, a separate counter for buying meal tokens has been set up at the hospital premises, Passey told PTI.

The project sees its execution after a long 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 become operational in “two months and possibly before Independence Day”. On March 28.

Moreover, the city government had even allotted INR 10 crore in its budget for setting up the ‘Aam Aadmi canteens’ across the city to provide subsidized food. “It is proposed to start Aam Aadmi canteens in Delhi for providing nutritious and hygienic food at low prices to citizens, particularly the poor and the downtrodden who find it difficult to have a proper meal, like rickshaw pullers, daily wage labourers and construction workers,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said while presenting the budget in the Assembly. The functioning of the canteens will be monitored and coordinated by a “Bureau of Affordable Meals”, Sisodia had said.

Image: Patrika (representational image)

That said, lets hope that this new project/move by the AAP government is here for good, unlike certain odd (and even) schemes!

Featured Image: Festival Sherpa