Govt looking to plug leaks at Indira Canteens

Indira Canteens, former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s pet populist scheme, will get a technology touch to deal with rising complaints that the government was being shortchanged by some contractors who claim more money for meals that fewer people have eaten.

The highly-subsidised Indira Canteens provide breakfast for Rs 5 and lunch/dinner for Rs 10. The canteens were first started for the urban poor in Bengaluru, expanding later to all districts across the state.

While the scheme has met with considerable success in Bengaluru, where the canteens are overseen by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Urban Development department has been receiving complaints that contractors inflate their bills in canteens located outside the city.

The state-run Karnataka Municipal Data Society (KMDS) has now developed a software that can track, on a daily basis, the number of plates served in the canteens.

“At present, we rely on the bill submitted at the end of each month by a contractor. Say, he claims to have served 400 lunches, based on which payment is made. Instead of this, we are moving into a regime in which we are able to track the number of meals served daily,” KMDS Joint Director (Reforms) Raghunandan Murthy said.

The software, Murthy said, is being tested in a few canteens located in Tumakuru and Doddaballapur. The token generated at the counter is linked to an online database that will help authorities know the number of meals served every day.

While the total price for breakfast, lunch and dinner come to Rs 25, the actual cost is anywhere between Rs 49 and Rs 57. The difference is borne by the government. An estimated one lakh people eat in the canteens daily.

Last year, former BJP minister S A Ramdas sought a probe on the back of evidence he claimed to have to show that food bills were not commensurate with footfalls in the canteens.

Daily plate tracking is just the first step in plugging the leaks. “We are looking at multiple other options,” Murthy said. According to sources, authorities are exploring linking weighing machines at the counter to a centralised database to measure the quantity of meals served. Also, some form of facial recognition is being looked at to count visitors.

Besides, the Indira Canteens are suffering from lack of ownership. Only 137 out of a targeted 247 canteens are up and running outside Bengaluru, and municipalities are citing fund-crunch for their upkeep.