‘Anna Canteen’ scheme draws flak from roadside vendors

VISAKHAPATNAM: The state government’s ambitious plans of providing subsidized food through `Anna Canteens’ to the poor at throwaway prices has owners of roadside eateries and tiffin centres up in arms.
The government has recently mooted the `Anna Canteen’ concept on the lines of 'Amma Canteen’ being implemented in Tamil Nadu since February 2013. If the concept is rolled out, people will be able to get food items priced below Rs 10 at these `Anna Canteens’.
“The scheme will not only snatch the livelihood of small vendors like me, it will also give rise to corruption as the subsidized items can find their way into open market. The scheme may be yielding good results in Tamil Nadu, but there is no guarantee it will succeed here,” said an irate tiffin centre owner at Dwarakanagar.
In fact, leaders of such vendor associations from the city have already started negotiations with the government urging it not to ruin the livelihood of thousands of small scale vendors by introducing the scheme.
Confirming their plans to fight the government’s `Anna Canteen’ scheme tooth and nail, T Venkateswara Rao, convener, AP Street Vendors Welfare Federation, said that they had met some officials of the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) at Hyderabad on Monday over the issue.
“A MEPMA official advised us to urge the government to ensure that the scheme involves existing small eateries. He also suggested that we meet municipal administration and urban development minister P Narayana. We will proceed as per his suggestions,” Rao told TOI from Hyderabad.
Besides, the federation representatives are also planning to conduct a meeting with the officials concerned in the city, including Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) commissioner M V Satyanarayana at the Public Library on August 20 to discuss in detail the pros and cons of the scheme and its impact on small time eateries.
“I am sure that if the scheme is implemented without involvement of the existing small eateries then the livelihood of thousands of small scale eateries will be at stake,” Rao added.
Meanwhile, sources in the department of civil supplies as well as GVMC revealed that the state government is planning to launch the `Anna Canteens’ at Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Anantapur in the first phase from either at the end of the month or the first week of September.
However, a security officer at RTC complex said that scheme would prove to be a boon to those residing in urban areas and drawing salaries of below Rs 5000 monthly as they cannot afford expensive meals in hotels and restaurants.