A slip of tongue by Rahul Gandhi stopping short of describing 'Indira canteens' as 'Amma canteens', named after late Jayalalithaa, caused a flutter during the launch of the Karnataka government's subsidised food outlets today.
"That is the vision of the Amma....The Indira Canteen," he said as he corrected himself during the launch of "populist" outlets.
Also, what caught everyone's attention was his repeatedly mentioning "every single city in Bangalore".
"The chief minister has mentioned to me that Bangalore is just the beginning, that he is going to expand this programme to other cities.
"And soon, over the next couple of months, every single city in Bangalore, every single poor person in every single city in Bangalore will feel that in the state of Karnataka under Siddaramaih ji's government I simply cannot go hungry," he said.
The canteens will offer breakfast at Rs 5 and lunch and dinner at Rs 10 per plate.
Apparently taking cue from the popular "Amma canteens", the Siddaramaiah government had announced launch of Indira canteens in the 2017-2018 state budget.
Initially referred as "Namma Canteen", the name of the subsidised food canteens was subsequently changed to "Indira Canteen."
The Congress legislators have sought to give a political touch to the populist announcement ahead of Assembly polls early next year by naming it after former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Of a total of proposed 198 canteens, 101 were launched today and the rest would start functioning from October 2, the state government said.
With this, each ward under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city corporation, will have an Indira Canteen.
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