With a huge number of daily workers being engaged for the election campaigns and public meetings organised by various political parties, several Anna canteens in Visakhapatnam have been witnessing low turnout, for the past couple of weeks.
Many Anna canteens are seeing free walk-in situation's, unlike the regular days, where people would stand in queue for a place. There has been a drop of about 10 to 30% in the crowd at various Anna canteens.
“During regular days, we would have about 600 people for lunch. But for the past couple of weeks, about 400 to 450 people are having lunch. So, food is also being brought as per the need, to avoid wastage,” said a staffer of Anna Canteen located in Visakha North Constituency.
Many Anna canteens have been set up in Visakhapatnam, at the places where people from Below Poverty Line (BPL), daily labourers, construction workers, auto-rickshaw drivers and a few others reside.
Each canteen would meet the need of about 1,200 target audience (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) during normal days. However for the past couple of weeks, these labour are being engaged by for political campaigns, in the afternoon, where they are being provided food and additional wage of ₹300 to ₹700.
In the case of a few Anna canteens, they have been witnessing good crowd for breakfast, but when it comes to lunch and dinner, the rush is again down.
Anna canteen near Regional Eye Hospital, Port hospital area, Madhavadhara, MVP Colony and a many other areas are in a similar situation.
“Many labour are leaving for election campaigns, so we have been seeing a drop. For lunch, we are witnessing crowd of about 450 to 500, which was around 600 earlier. There is no rush these days and it has become a free walk-in,” said a Anna canteen staffer working at Regional Eye Hospital near Rama Talkies area in Visakhapatnam.