After serving free lunch to five lakh attendants of patients at four government hospitals and two hospitals managed by trusts in a span of three years, the ‘Bhojanamrita’ scheme is all set to be introduced at Osmania General Hospital (OGH).
According to Hare Krishna Movement (HKM), which is managing the scheme, nearly 1,000 attenders will be covered under the free lunch scheme on a daily basis at OGH.
With the help of Rotary Club, a Bhojanamrita hall has already been constructed within the premises of OGH to operate the free lunch scheme. According to the authorities, background tasks like identifying donors, coordinating with the OGH authorities and setting up a place for serving lunches within the hospital premises are already complete.
At a meeting held at Niloufer Hospital on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the scheme, HKM authorities said the OGH project would be their largest venture ever attempted. “We are just looking for a suitable date to launch the Bhojanamrita scheme in OGH which will cover 1,000 attenders. The scheme is running successfully only due to our donors,” said Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa, president, HKM.
Since November, 2011, the scheme is operational in six hospitals including Indo-American Cancer Hospital (250 attenders per day), Niloufer Hospital (500), District Government Hospital, Mahabubnagar (400), District Government Hospital, Nizamabad and Bodhan (500), Maternity Hospital, Sultan Bazar (250), and Mahaveer Hospital (100).
Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), which has been donating funds for free lunch meals at other hospitals, has come forward to fund the Bhojanamrita scheme at OGH. “The beginnings of this project were quite humble, but thanks to our donors, now the free lunch scheme to patients’ attenders is getting a lot of support from all quarters,” a top HKM official said.
