188 additional Indira Canteens will be started this year: Karnataka CM

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said 188 additional Indira Canteens, which offers food at subsidised rates, will be started this year, for the benefit of the people.

The Indira Canteens project is a flagship programme of the earlier Siddaramaiah-led government, started for the benefit of the urban poor. The canteens serve breakfast for Rs 5, and lunch/dinner for Rs 10.

"Earlier, we had started 197 (Indira Canteens) in Bengaluru. This time they will be started in 225 wards of Bengaluru. Apart from this, canteens will be started where necessary," Siddaramaiah said in response to a question.

Speaking to reporters here, he said mobile canteens will set up where there is shortage of space, and permanent buildings will be constructed for the canteens where possible.

"A total of 188 additional Indira Canteens will be started this year," he said.

The chief minister was speaking to reporters after garlanding the statue of poet-saint Kanakadasa on the premises of the Legislators Home here on the occasion of Kanakadasa Jayanthi.

Responding to a question on his meeting with 'upset' MLA B R Patil, Siddaramaiah said, "I had called B R Patil and have spoken to him. I have pacified him. He has agreed to attend the Assembly session."

Patil, an MLA from Alanda, had recently written a letter to Siddaramaiah seeking a probe into an alleged corruption charge against him before the commencement of the winter session of the Legislature, scheduled in Belagavi between December 4 and 15.

Stating that Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, during the last assembly session, had spoken in such a way that it gave the impression that Patil had given a contract for certain works to Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) in exchange for a bribe, the MLA had said it was morally not appropriate for him to take part in the legislature session, facing such a charge.