Full meals @ Rs 5 says Yogi

Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh government has said it will soon open “Annapurna Bhojanalayas” across the state to provide full meals at Rs. 5 for the poor.

Chief Minister Adityanath’s office announced the scheme on Twitter, saying it was aimed at ensuring that no one goes hungry in UP. The Annapurna Bhojanalya will serve unlimited portions, it said.

Breakfast, which could include porridge, tea and pakoras and poha , will cost Rs. 3 and lunch and dinner, with rice, rotis, dal and seasonal vegetables, will cost Rs. 5 each. A basic plan has been drafted for now, said officials, and will be refined.

The Yogi Adityanath government, sources said, had begun work on the scheme days after it took over in March, but the formal launch will take a few more weeks.

It plans to set up 200 of such subsidised kitchens across the state and urban and semi-urban areas are being identified to ensure the poor benefit. The government hopes to serve a lot of migrant labour in cities like capital Lucknow, most of them from eastern UP and the Nepal Terai belt, who mostly live on the road and cook there too.

The UP government’s labour department will set up the kitchens and will rope in NGOs to help run and maintain them.

Yogi Adityanath’s kitchens will not bear the Chief Minister’s name. The BJP government in Rajasthan runs subsidised Annapurna Rasoi or kitchens for the poor.