A month to go for polls, SDMC plans to revive subsidised meal kiosks for poor

Setting up subsidised meal kiosks under the Atal Ahar Yojana -- one of the poll promises by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the 2017 municipal corporation elections in Delhi, has remained a non-starter.

Now, with just one month to go for the MCDs terms to end as the city heads towards civic polls in April, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has amended its policy to address legal flaws so that the project could be launched.

SDMC mayor Mukesh Suryan said last Thursday the civic body cleared an amendment to the policy to correct an infirmity pointed out by the legal department which had blocked the implementation of the plan. Civic officials who are aware of the matter said that 40 ‘meal centres’ will be opened under the policy that will cater meals to the poor at highly subsidised rates.

According to the officials, SDMC launched a pilot run of the plan by opening four kiosks in December 2017 that provided a full meal for ₹10. However, all of them were shut down within an year. Then, plans to re-launch the scheme in 2020 by linking it with the mid-day meal scheme for schools had to be stopped due to the Covid pandemic that forced schools shut.

The last attempt at kickstarting the meals scheme was red-flagged by the SDMC law department in November 2021.

In August last year, the SDMC revised provisions of the scheme, and resolved that 10 kiosks with an inbuilt kitchen to provide subsidised meals will be set up in each municipal zone on the “recommendation/acceptance by concerned area councillors”, and the number of kiosks may be increased as per the requirement.

However, in a letter to the SDMC standing committee dated December 21, 2021, commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said the law department has found that the resolution is not in accordance with the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. The law departments’ note to the commissioner dated November 22, 2021 stated: “The later part of the resolution i.e. recommendation or acceptance by the concerned area councillor is in the violation of section 430 of the DMC Act. According to the DMC act, the permission of licences comes under the domain of the commissioner or an officer authorised by the commissioner. The licence (in all three civic bodies) is not provided on the basis of the recommendation or acceptance by the councillor.” The law department, in its note, said the resolution was not legally tenable.

Under the last revamp of the scheme in August 2021, SDMC decided to allow private operators to use the food van for commercial purposes in the ‘non-scheme hours’ by allowing them to carry out sale of confectionary items, packaged food and eatables. They also planned to sell a 50sqm area on the kiosk for putting up advertisements.

According to the plan, the civic body planned to provide breakfast between 8am and 11am; lunch between 12 noon and 3pm.According to the new rules framed by the civic body in August, the menu has also been expanded. Breakfast was priced at ₹10 per plate, and lunch at ₹15 per plate.

Prem Chauhan, AAP councillor and leader of the opposition in SDMC, said the BJP has promised to provide subsidised meals before the 2017 elections. “SDMC opened just four stalls and those too shut down soon. When we asked officially about the scheme, the department replied that no money was spent on the scheme in the past five years. Now, they are saying that 40 stall will be opened when elections are near. The scheme was launched in the name of former PM, and they could not respect that.”

This is not the first effort by a government authority in Delhi to launch a subsidised meal scheme for the poor.

The erstwhile Sheela Dikshit government launched Jan Ahaar Yojna in June 2010 with provision of Rs18 per thali meal which was modelled on the Amma Canteens in Tamil Nadu. For Rs18 the government promised to provide meals with at least 1000 calories. In 2012, there were 38 stalls to cater to needs of the poor but a large number of these units closed down over the last decade.

The Aam Aadmi Party had also promised “Aam Aadmi canteens” at 100 locations for providing meals at subsidised rates but the canteen project did not progress beyond the pilot stage.