Amma canteens retain quality of food despite losing customers

Amma Canteens, the brainchild of the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, may be set to turn six on February 24, but the chain of affordable eateries — launched to provide low-cost meals in 2013 — seems to have lost much of its sheen.

For eateries that serve idlis for Re 1 each and Pongal for Rs 5, most of them wear a skeletal look even during breakfast and lunch times. Customers, however, clarify that even if there has been a slump in sales, the quality of the food has not slipped.

M Durai, a construction worker, said, “I have been eating at the Amma Canteen for more than four years now. The food is good except for the sambar, which is slightly tasteless.” Durai, a resident of Mangadu, added that he visits Kodambakkam every day for work and has his breakfast at the canteens in Teynampet.

Jayalalithaa had opened the first Amma Canteen in Chennai on her birthday on February 24, 2013. The scheme that was first launched in Chennai Corporation before subsequently expanded throughout the state. As of now, the Greater Chennai Corporation has 407 Amma Canteens and there are 251 canteens in otherparts of the state.

The canteens sell idlis for Re 1 each and Pongal for Rs 5 as breakfast, variety rice for Rs 5 as lunch and two chappatis with dal for Rs 3 as evening dinner.

Meanwhile, a Greater Chennai Corporation official admitted that the Amma Canteens are losing patronage and said the slump is expected. “When we first opened the canteens many middle-class residents and school students used to buy from there. Due to the initial response, we used to earn more than Rs 6,000 per day per canteen. But now, we make around Rs 2,000,”the official said.

He explained that due to the policy concerns, the civic body could not introduce new items to the canteen’s menu. “We maintain the same quality and taste, but we do not provide papadum or pickle and chutney. So, many customers, who could afford food from other places left us, while the poor continue to be our regular customers.”

According to the official, Amma Canteens located in areas where poor and unorganised workers live has been recording better sales than the canteens located in middle-class and upper-middle-class areas.

When this correspondent visited a few Amma Canteens in the city, they were almost empty on Saturday morning. “Earlier, our canteen would get crowded every day but now the number of customers has fallen. Taking a cue from the decrease in supply, officials too have been supplying ingredients in lesser quantities,” a woman staffer at a canteen said. She, however, clarified that care is taken to ensure that the demand is fulfilled.

Sources from the Chennai Corporation said that the civic body has ordered division level officers to assess the performance of 39 canteens that has been recording lower sales than other canteens and prepare a report based on the findings of. “We will send proposals to the government based on the report,” an official said.

No awareness among labour beneficiaries 
To ensure that construction workers get their daily dose of nutrition, the state government has recently announced that it would provide free food to them at the Amma Canteens. As per the order issued by the Labour Department, over 29 lakh construction workers registered with the welfare board would be provided free-of-cost food at the Amma Canteens. But, the awareness about this scheme appears to be extremely low. “Even though I have been eating at the Amma Canteen every day, I do not know anything about the announcement. Next time, I will check with the staff at the Amma Canteen,” M Durai, a construction worker said. When asked an official, he said that the free-meal scheme would be first implemented in Chennai Corporation and would be expanded to other parts of the state. “We will ask the staff to explain the scheme to the workers after it is implemented. Construction workers with ID cards issued by welfare board could show their ID cards and eat at the canteens without having to pay for the meals,” the official added.

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the canteens have been recording a loss of around Rs 100 crore every year. “The Corporation has been spending Rs. 140 crore to run the canteens every year, the revenue from sales hover around only Rs. 100 crore. This will translate into 75 per cent loss,” the official said.