The Times of India                17.06.2013

Corporation to roll out mobile cafe, door delivery services

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation has approved a project to roll out a slew of services using Kudumbashree units. Four mobile cafe units run by Kudumbashree volunteers along with teams offering at least ten door-to-door services like pressing of clothes, distribution of milk and eggs, supply of garments for new-born babies and providing traditional food items at the door step, will be introduced in the city.

The project has been approved by the welfare standing committee and has been included in the annual plan outlay for the financial year 2013-14. The civic body has decided to choose a special menu for the mobile cafe outlets. Modelled on jail chapathis, the civic body will have a team of cooks from Kudumbashree volunteers to prepare chicken biriyani.

"This will be the main attraction of the mobile cafe. The cooking team will undergo a special training under the coordinator who trained similar units in Kochi. The biriyani will be made available at a price cheaper than the market rates," said chairman of welfare standing committee Palayam Rajan. The civic body has proposed to open a poultry farm on Vilappilsala factory premises and chicken reared here will be used in biriyani.

Each of the cafe outlets will be run by a team chosen from four community development societies (CDS). The unit will be allotted a maximum of Rs 3 lakh for running the outlets. "We will procure four vehicles which would be modified to house cafes. The corporation will also procure subsidies for the units. The units will be responsible for paying the liabilities, which will make sure that they take good care of the business," said a project official.

The civic body will also launch another set of teams for door-to-door delivery of various essential services. "We plan a system by which a city resident needs to enter his name in the registry of a Kudumbashree unit and he/she can have the essential services delivered at the door step on a routine basis. We hope that this idea could prove a big success among the city folk," the official added.

The functioning of these units will be coordinated with a scheme that has been devised for the welfare of fisher folk. The units will collect fresh fish from coastal areas, slice them and pack them in a ready-to-cook manner. This will be delivered to the residents.

Although the original plan was to launch the 10 essential service package simultaneously in all the 25 city wards, the corporation has now planned to do it on a trial basis. "We will employ Kudumbashree volunteers to prepare a data bank to identity probable customers in various wards. Services will be launched on an experimental basis in places with most number of customers," said Rajan.