Amma Canteens’ patronage nosedives

CHENNAI: After being noted and celebrated in many states and even other countries, the Amma Canteens in Chennai are recording a drastic fall in the number of customers and revenue according to a survey done by the Greater Chennai Corporation.

The spiraling rise in loss over the years has raised doubts about the continuation of the budget eatery, though Mayor R Priya maintaining in the Corporation Council meeting that there were no plans to shut them down.

The survey conducted from March 7 to 16 revealed that the canteens in 7 of the 15 zones did not meet the sales target. According to official data, these eateries had an income of Rs 40 crore and loss of Rs 51 crore in 2014-15, which has worsened to Rs 18 crore income and a loss of Rs 95 crore in 2021 -2022.

When DT Next visited a some Amma Canteens, leftover food was found there, ostensibly due to poor patronage. According to an employee at a canteen in Tondiarpet, the facility receives 120 people during breakfast hours and about 20-30 who have lunch and dinner from there.

When asked about the purpose of the survey, a senior Corporation official said the Madras High Court had recently directed it to furnish data of the food provided to the people. But the civic body did not have such details. “Hence, a baseline survey was conducted. Besides that, monthly data on the footfall was also collected,” the official said.

During a Corporation Council meeting in November 2022, K Dhanasekaran who heads the accounts committee had noted that the GCC has incurred a loss of Rs 786 crore in the last nine years and suggested that the canteens should be closed down. This understandably invited immediate condemnation from the opposition AIADMK.

Stopped questions after customers got angry, say Corpn staff

The survey that the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) undertook earlier this month has triggered a controversy, as the questionnaire contained queries on the customers’ caste and religion. They were also asked to suggest changes in the menu.

Some of the women staff at the Amma Canteen that DT Next visited said they were not comfortable asking questions about the caste and religion of customers. There were even cases of them being shouted at by customers when asked about their marital status, a Corporation official said.

In all, there are 21 questions in the survey questionnaire. The Amma Canteen workers were asked to collect data from the customers through a CS entry app.

“We just asked the basic questions such as name, age, education qualification and work because we were not comfortable asking other details like caste, religion, and marital status. On the first day of the survey, some of the customers began to respond angrily. So we stopped asking these questions,” said a staff member at a canteen in Tondiarpet zone.

Some of the staff were also asked to collect data on the number of construction workers and people from underprivileged communities who benefitted from the canteen. A few customers put forth suggestions on changing the menu, said another worker from a canteen in Royapuram.