The Hindu               13.06.2013

More Amma canteens planned in Salem

With Amma canteens drawing overwhelming response from people here, more such canteens are expected to come up soon.

Inspecting a canteen in the city here on Sunday, Mayor S. Soundappan said that the quality of food served is superior and the poor can have the food at a nominal cost.

With the canteen evoking good response, we have requested Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to sanction additional canteens for the corporation so that more people would be benefitted, he said.

From Sunday, pickles were being served with curd rice in all the canteens. Since its inauguration last Sunday, all the food items, during morning and afternoon, were sold out in an hour as food was prepared for only 300 people. On a trial basis, an LED TV was installed in the canteen at Hasthampatti. If the government gives its approval, all the canteens would have televisions that would screened achievements made by the government and major projects implemented by the corporation.

With crowd management posing a herculean task for officials, separate queues for men, women, children, and differently-abled persons were introduced. This helps people get tokens easily, said the officials. They added that the performance of all the canteens in the last one week was satisfactory and no problems were reported.

“On an average the revenue out of sale of idli, sambar rice, and curd rice is around Rs. 34,000 a day.”