Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday inaugurated city’s largest
Amma Canteen to cater to the needs of patients and visitors at the
Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.  Jayalalithaa also inaugurated
distribution of five lakh mosquito nets free of cost to the poor living
near water bodies in Chennai Corporation areas. She also launched
distribution of 6.5 lakh papaya saplings and 5.5 lakh Nochi saplings.

The
canteen in the Government Hospital, inaugurated through video
conferencing facility, has been set up in an area of 5,100 sq.ft and 300
persons can have food at a time. On the advice of the Chief Minister,
ramps are provided to help the physically challenged people to visit the
canteen and short tables are provided for them to sit comfortably and
have food. 

The canteens in 200 wards in the city have received
overwhelming response from the public. These canteens sell idli, pongal,
sambar rice, curd rice, curry leaves rice and lemon rice at a
subsidised price between 7 a.m. to 10 am., and 12 noon to 3 pm. The
Government Hospital is a place where poor and middle class people visit
in large numbers and the new canteen has been welcomed by the visitors.

Mosquito nets

The
Chennai Corporation has planned to distribute five lakh mosquito nets
free of cost to those living along the water courses like Adyar, Cooum
and Buckingham canal to help them tackling mosquito menace and to
prevent spread of diseases like malaria, dengue, and chikungunya. In the
first phase, the City Corporation has procured 78,184 mosquito nets at a
cost of Rs 1.32 crore.  The Chief Minister launched the distribution of
these nets at the Secretariat and four persons received the nets from
her.

Free saplings

The Chennai Corporation
has started planting 64 saplings in all wards from the 64th birthday of
the CM as part of the Corporation’s efforts to fight global warming. It
was also decided to observe the birthday of the Chief Minister as the
Environmental Awareness Day. Following this, it has been decided to
distribute 5.5 lakh nochi saplings to control the mosquito menace and
6.5 lakh papaya saplings. Four persons received saplings from the Chief
Minister.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister inaugurated the training
centres at Saidapet and Perambur to provide training free of cost to 710
graduates for appearing in the examinations to be conducted by the
TNPSC and the UPSC.