Chennai: In the wake of Amma canteen, a pet project of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, receiving negative publicity and facing teething problems with the annual loss escalating to Rs 120 crore, the top brass of the city corporation has started revisiting the loopholes in the project and has evolved a digital module under which the daily sales of all 407 Amma canteens are now monitored at the Ripon Buildings, the city civic headquarters.
In a related development on Wednesday, corporation commissioner D. Karthickeyan who had been conducting back to back review meetings to stabilise the Amma canteens called on state finance secretary K. Shamugham seeking capital funds. The capital funds are essential for the cash starved city corporation to execute the corporation projects and also to run the Amma canteens.
Amma canteen workers serve food to customers. (Photo: DC)
According to Chennai corporation sources, recent CAG reports pointed out the total expenditure on Amma canteens as above Rs 100 crore for the year 2014-15. For the year 2016-17, the loss is estimated to be above Rs 120 crore.
“Under these circumstances, all teething problems starting from payments to 5,000 Amma canteen employees, provision of drinking water to consumers and stocking of essential provisions are now being discussed,” said a senior corporation official.
Based on the outcome of recent meetings all employees who are casual workers are now covered under employees state insurance scheme and there is no delay in salaries. Further, the issue of pending payments to cooperative societies supplying dal and provisions is also under discussion and is to be sorted out shortly, the official said.
Amma canteen staff distributing Nilavembu Kashayam at a centre in Egmore. (Photo: DC)
When contacted, corporation commissioner D. Karthikeyan on the recent media reports that the civic body is planning to close down a few Amma canteens in Chennai to reduce the revenue loss, the top official shot back saying, “There is no proposal to close down any Amma canteen. We are maintaining a daily sale of above 10 lakh meals a day and whenever there is a dip in the sales the local supervisor is pulled up, seeking an explanation. There are issues when you run 400 outlets, but we are attending to it,” the official said.
