Nagpur: As announced by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Day 1 of the lockdown on Thursday, more than 1,500 ‘Shiv Bhojan Thalis’ were served free of cost to the poor from 10 authorized centres across the city. These thalis will be served for the month, indicating the lockdown will be extended beyond May 1.
“The Shiv Bhojan is available for just Rs5, which includes two rotis, rice, sabji and dal. On normal days, we serve the food between 11am and 3pm, but on Thursday, as it was free, we were out of stock around 12.30pm. I served around 300 thalis. Most of the beneficiaries were rickshaw-pullers, labourers, destitute, beggars, and homeless,” said Sanjay Kasodhan, who runs the centre near Chitnavis Park in Mahal.
The centres remain open for a limited period and each centre may not serve more than 300 thalis. The reason is that as per the GR issued on April 15, 2021, the state government has doubled the target of thalis from one lakh to two lakhs for the entire Maharashtra.
“When Covid was under control, the target was one lakh thalis and each centre served 150 thalis in the city for Rs5. Now that the target has been doubled, we assume we will have to serve 300 thalis, though there no such directions from the district administration,” said Kishore Thakre, who runs a centre near Daga Hospital.
For serving meals at Rs5 per thali, the government pays a subsidy of Rs45. Now, the operators will get Rs50 as a subsidy as thali is being served free of cost. Yet, the centres are not ready to serve more than 150 thalis the reason being that during complete lockdown when they served up to 1,000 thalis, the centres were paid money for 375 thalis.
“The balance payment has still not released though the operating cost has increased due to food inflation and maintenance and labour cost. Besides, the district officials have also not released payment for the last two months,” said Thakre.
The district administration failed to reveal the figure of how much was paid to registered street vendors who are to be given Rs 1,500 and rickshaw owners Rs2,000. Among other benefits, the state will grant Rs 1,000 to each person for two months under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana.