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.