Indira Canteens only on 'open spaces', not parks, says CM

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday rubbished charges that the Indira Canteens were coming up on parks and playgrounds in the city.

Addressing reporters after winding up his city rounds, Siddaramaiah said, “None of the notified parks and playgrounds is being used to construct Indira Canteens. We are building them on BBMP open spaces.”

Twitter way

However, on Saturday morning, the chief minister took to Twitter to respond to DH’s report on how the civic body is using a November 2015 notification, according to which Bengaluru has 283 designated open spaces that are neither parks nor playgrounds.

“Have instructed @BBMPCOMM1 to not build #IndiraCanteen on parks and playgrounds. The poor also have a right over open spaces,” the chief minister tweeted.

When asked during the press conference why the BBMP invested in developing these “open spaces” into parks, Siddaramaiah said such measures were taken to protect them from encroachment and dumping of waste.

“The Indira Canteen scheme is aimed at feeding the poor. Nearly three lakh people will benefit from it everyday. Our opponents are not able to digest the success of this scheme, so they are protesting against it,” the chief minister explained.

Rahul for inauguration

He said the government has decided to launch the Indira Canteen scheme on August 16 and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will “most likely” inaugurate them.
He was confident that 125 canteens will be ready by August 16 and the rest will be built before October 2.