White Elephants: Seven months after Amma's death, Amma canteens are falling apart

Amma Canteens of Chennai have become a burden on the corporation and have turned into white elephants A lack of maintenance, expenses in excess of running costs and ‘looting’ of canteen resources is alleged When there are no customers, reportedly the helpless staff sell the eatables to other hotels  

On the one hand, Amma Canteens of Chennai, the brainchild of late chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa, are inspiring neighbouring states like Karnataka where Indira canteens are being built across the state. But in its own state, Amma canteens are degenerating by the day. The Amma canteens were established to run on a no-profit basis by the Chennai Corporation and eventually followed by other corporations of Tamil Nadu.

It is reported that the Amma Canteens of Chennai have become a burden on the corporation and have turned into white elephants. From the past two years, the Amma canteens have degenerated to a pathetic condition, reports Kannada Prabha.

Lack of maintenance, expenses in excess of operating costs, ‘looting’ of canteen resources and, at times, the pressure to serve free food is causing huge losses to the canteens, it is learnt. For example, a great instance of the care-free attitude of the management was shown when when Jayalalithaa died. At the time, for the entire week of Dec 6 to Dec 12, food was served free to everybody at the canteen, causing a loss of Rs 75.77 lakh to the Chennai Corporation. And there are many such examples. 

During the term of Seidai Doreswamy being the Mayor, attempts were made to double the canteens in each ward. This resulted in a decline in demand and as a result the quality of food also fell. A senior citizen has complained and taken the corporation to task. One cook said that supply of rice and pulses were of substandard quality and hence it was not possible to make quality idlis, reports Kannada Prabha.

In many instances, the canteen staff were found selling supplies to other hotels. This has caused further loss to the canteens. However, the canteen administration says they are set targets to sell certain amount of eatables. When there are no customers, the helpless staff sell the eatables to other hotels so that they avoid the danger of going out of jobs.

It would seem a great initiative can be launched successfully but to keep running it successfully requires different kind of skills.