Coimbatore will soon have five ‘Amma Unavgams,’ the budget restaurants, from which members of the working class and economically weaker sections can have food at subsidised rates.
According to Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner G. Latha, the civic body planned to open five such canteens in the city – one each a zone in the coming days. Divulging further details would be premature at this stage because things were at a preliminary stage.
Plus, the Corporation was also expecting orders from of the office of the Commissioner for Municipal Administration in this regard. There were chances that the number of canteens could also go up. Sources in the civic body said that the Corporation was in the process of identifying locations for the canteens and they could most probably be located on the civic body premises. The kitchen could come up at the Corporation wedding hall at Puliakulam.
The civic body had formed a committee comprising the City Health Officer for this purpose. The members of the committee included representatives of the engineering wing, sanitary supervisors and of course the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
The sources said that the Corporation planned to involve members of self help groups in maintaining the kitchen and serving food at the counters. It had also planned to involve owners of roadside eateries if they were interested.
The Corporation would buy provisions in bulk from the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, Chinthamani, the Co-operative store, curd from Aavin and vegetables from the market. The rough estimates it had prepared suggests that there could be a variation in the production price give the cost of living in the city vis-à-vis Chennai.
If the Corporation were to open such canteens, it would be of immense help to the working class in the industrial city of Coimbatore, said U.K. Sivagnanam, member, District Secretariat, Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Corporation should open a canteen in each of the 100 wards, he suggested.
