Hyderabad: GHMC to provide evening meals at Annapurna centres

Hyderabad: Officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) plan to extend the timings of Annapurna centres and provide meals twice a day during lockdown II.

The Annapurna (Five rupees) meal has been a blessing for many people, like migrants, shelter homes, hawkers and homeless, in the second wave of Covid, as these centres were satisfying the hunger of people in the City by providing mid-day meals.

With this, the civic body plans to provide meal in the evening and revised its timings from 11 am to 7 pm during the lockdown to provide food twice a day, according to the officials.

The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) department has asked the GHMC to revise the timings of Annapurna centres and to provide food by collecting Rs5 and increase the number of meals.

It told the civic body to focus on provision of food to the inmates of night shelters and orphanages. To provide meals to the needy, the State government ordered setting up of 100 additional centres. Presently, there are 150 Annapurna centres in the City. The additional centres will be operated from May 14. Now a total of 250 centres will be operated.

On Thursday nearly 20 canteens were set up in different parts of the City. The concerned GHMC Zonal Commissioners and Deputy Commissioner of inspected the canteens to ensure their proper functioning.

Presently the Annapurna centres only provide mid-day meals and are open from 11 am to 1 pm. They GHMC is providing meals for 45,000 persons at these centres.