THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Annam Punyam scheme started in the capital city which targeted desitutes to give them free meals has been discontinued within a month after it began. Various reasons including poor publicity leading to inadequate donations and poor co-ordination have been cited. And to top it all, current collector Collector S Venkatesapaty told Deccan Chronicle that he was not briefed about the project when he took over in August. The project on the lines of operation Sulaimani in Kozhikode was started by his predecessor Biju Prabhakar at the end of 2015.
Hungry people in and around hospitals such as Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and General Hospital were targeted. They had to produce food coupons that were available in 13 village offices in the capital. After the delays caused by the assembly election, the scheme started its pilot run in August this year by serving food in four hotels. Soon it stopped due to poor coordination between the district administration and restaurants and caterers. Due to inadequate publicity, public donations were not enough to run the scheme, sources said.
“There was a plan to allot a hall at the Medical College to serve food. The District collector was to sanction funds but nothing has materialised yet,” said a volunteer. Unlike the scheme in Kozhikode, the Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association (KHRA) was to source food from hotels and marriage venues and distribute at specific points between 2pm and 8pm daily.
The cost of the logistics was to be met from the money in donation boxes kept in restaurants. “The drawbacks of such schemes are that only informed destitute benefit. Many are physically challenged, mentally ill and diseased, but only a few can collect coupons from revenue officials. There is no alternative to delivering food directly to them,” said Ashwathy Nair, activist with the Jwala foundation that serves food to the needy.
