The Hindu                04.06.2013  

Amma canteens keep on drawing large crowds in Vellore

At one canteen, the crowd broke grill in ticket counter; lunch sold out in most outlets.

Amma canteens, started at 10 places in Vellore city, got overwhelming response and drew huge crowd on Monday, the day after the ceremonial inauguration.

Many of the 10 eateries struggled to handle crowd and supply food. Though lunch is supposed to be available between 12 noon and 3 p.m., shutters were down by 2 p.m. in many places.

At the canteen located near MLA office on busy Anna Salai, the huge turn out necessitated police protection. In fact, the crowd broke the grill in the token counter. While hundreds of people were vying to get into the canteen, police pulled the shutters down by about 1 p.m. as the queue of people waiting to get tokens was long enough and available food was only limited. By about 1.30 p.m, the lunch was over. Sam Colonel, Corporation Sanitary Supervisor, who was assisting the members of Women Self Help Group that runs the canteen, told The Hindu that 529 plates of sambar rice and 218 plates of curd rice were sold for lunch on Monday.

Though many left disappointed as they could not get a plate of food, those who got a chance were satisfied with the taste. Workers and people with humble income are happy as the food bills would not be pinching their wallets anymore.

Vinoth, worker of a painting shop, who was eating sambar rice, said that the taste was good. “I used to eat in a small road side eatery whenever I could not bring lunch from home. It will cost Rs. 25. Here a plate costs Rs. 5 and two plates would be enough for me,” he said.

Sankar, a labourer said, “The food is good but they are not giving more than one token.”

Another canteen located in Nadu Theru in Kaspa, a residential area, too received good crowd. But the canteen was relatively peaceful without any kind of tension witnessed by the one near MLA’s office. However lunch was over here by 2 p.m. Women and children could be spotted in this place.

Nine-year-old girl Fariya was seen relishing sambar rice with another girl. Her father, who sells phenyl and toilet cleaning acid, went out for his business and her mother was also out of station. Hence, she was here to finish her lunch. When asked how the food was, she said it was good. When asked if it was better then her mother’s preparation, she quickly denied and said that it was better than the eatery where she used to eat when her mother could not make a meal. Saleem, an auto driver, said that it would taste better if there was less chilli.

Subash, a house keeping boy in a lodge, said it would be better if they supplied drinking water filtered from RO plant.Another canteen located in the premises of Corporation Market High School in Kosapet has completely pulled its shutters when this reporter visited it by 2 p.m.

Sumathi of Malargal SHG that runs the canteen said that they plan to prepare more food from Tuesday.