Annapurna Akshaya Patra Yojna initiated by Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF), in alliance with Chandigarh UT Administration, started to provide an affordable, hygienic and nutritious diet to people. Under this scheme, food packets worth Rs. 10 were distributed by the UT Administration, but only 500 people could avail the meal as the entire stock was sold within an hour.
“The demand was so huge that within an hour all the food packets, which were being distributed as tiffin, were sold. More people would be deployed on it,” said an official of Akshaya Patra.
Considering the rising demand, APF has decided to increase the stock by installing more machines to prepare 4,000 chappatis at one go. Currently, they have a machine which can prepare 2,000 chappatis. The food packets are being distributed daily from 6 pm to 9 pm at vegetable mandi (Transport Area), Sector 26, Chandigarh, Labour Chowk, Manimajra, Chandigarh, Labour Chowk, (Near EWS Colony),Dhanas, Labour Chowk, Ram Darbar, Chandigarh, Labour Colony No.4, Industrial Area, Phase 1, Chandigarh.
Annapurna Akshaya Patra Yojna was inaugurated by the Governor of Punjab and Administrator VP Badnore along with Member of Parliament, Kirron Kher. A team comprising of seven inspectors has been appointed to ensure smooth distribution of the meals.
The food packet contains 6 chappatis, one vegetable and pickle. For this project, a kitchen has been established at Karuna Sadan Building, Sector 11-B, Chandigarh, worth Rs70 lakh.
Akshaya Patra Foundation believes that feeding people is need of the hour and the rising demand for food packets implies that people immensely needed this scheme.
The government officials have proclaimed that to keep away people from availing the food packets twice, they will now distribute the meal in tiffins. These tiffins will be similar to the ones that are currently used at the railways.
