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Karnataka may rename Indira Canteens. Partisan politics, says Siddaramaiah
The Indira Canteens were launched in 2017 under the chief ministership of Siddaramaiah to provide ready-to-eat food to economically disadvantaged people.
The Karnataka government said Tuesday it may rename Indira Canteens and promptly drew fire from former chief minister Siddaramaiah under whose reign the canteens were launched.
“There have been several complaints regarding the functioning of Indira canteens including poor quality of food, inflating number of customers served, food not being cooked at the venue and other issues. The media has also been reporting the scams. So we are examining the functioning of the canteens,” Karnataka revenue minister R Ashoka told reporters.
The minister added that a proposal to rename the canteens is also being actively considered. “As a part of the relook at the canteens, we have received a proposal to rename the canteens from Indira canteens to Maharishi Valmiki Anna Kuteera (Valmiki Food Centres), so that the scheme is not identified with just any single party and has broad based acceptance.”
Indira Canteens are a subsidised ready-to-eat food providing centres for the economically disadvantaged which was launched on August 15, 2017 by the then Congress government headed by S Siddaramaiah. The first canteen was inaugurated by the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru. The canteens were named after Congress leader and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There are nearly 200 such canteens including 173 permanent ones and the rest being mobile.
The move by the BJP government to re-examine their functioning and renaming came in for sharp criticism by Siddaramaiah who took to Twitter to condemn the move saying, “We are inspired by the Garibi Hato slogan of former PM Indira Gandhi who had fought against poverty. She is not just a Congress party leader but that of the entire country and specially of poor people.”
Stating that BJP was playing partisan politics the former CM said they had respect for poet Maharishi Valmiki but the ruling party should not misuse his name, adding “Let the government name some new scheme of theirs befitting the stature of Valmiki instead of trying to abolish all the pro-poor schemes of our government.”
