Congress pet project Indira Canteens on the verge of closure
Bengaluru, Aug 27: Indira Canteens, the pet project of the previous Congress government to provide highly subsidised food to the urban poor, is on the verge of closure as neither the state government nor the Bengaluru corporation (BBMP) have made any budgetary allocations.
The Congress has been accusing the BJP of planning to shut down the Indira Canteens, named after former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi, though chief minister B S Yediyurappa had repeatedly said none of the pro-poor schemes will ever be wound up.
Taking a cue from Amma Canteen in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the Congress government had started the Indira Canteens in Bengaluru on August 15, 2018 ahead of 2018 assembly polls.
These canteens offered breakfast at Rs 5 and meals twice a day at Rs 10 per plate in the afternoon and night.
During the corporation council meeting on Tuesday, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad explained to the corporators about the challenges to continue the scheme.
"In the present situation, neither the BBMP nor the state government has allocated budget. If nobody makes any budgetary provision, then there will be a situation to shut it down. Hence, you have to take a call on what to do next," Prasad said.
The threat of closure looms large over 173 Indira canteens and 18 mobile Indira Canteens in the city, where at least 14.47 crore people have had meals, corporation officials told PTI.
Prasad explained to the council that state government funded the Indira Canteen as it was a state governments scheme and not the BBMP's.
In 2017-18, the state government announced Rs 100 crore budget for the project and handed over the entire amount to the nodal agency, which was BBMP, Prasad said.
However, the BBMP had to incur additional expenditure of Rs 24.37 crore to take up various infrastructure works around the Indira Canteens.
The next year, the government allocated Rs 145 crore for the canteens but released only Rs 115 crore whereas the expenditure was of Rs 137 crore, Prasad said, adding that the additional expenses was borne by the BBMP.
"In 2019-20, at the time of approval of the (BBMPs) budget in January, I wrote a detailed letter to the state government saying Indira Canteen was state governments scheme and thus they should reserve Rs 210 crore for this project.
Yet, they did not allocate any funds for Indira Canteen in its budget," Prasad told the council.
He said he wrote three letters from January to June this year but there was no response.
"On the one hand the state government did not reserve any funds for it while on the other, we did not include it in the Palike budget because it was not our scheme but of state government," Prasad explained.
Siddaramaiah, who had launched the project, warned that he will protest vehemently if the canteens were closed.
"The Indira Canteens are for the poor. I have no idea what decision they are going to take about them. If they do so, we will protest very strongly," Siddaramaiah told reporters at Belagavi.
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Putin meets Iran's FM Araghchi, says Russia ready to do its best to help bring peace to West Asia
Moscow (PTI): Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the Iranian people for fighting bravely and heroically for their sovereignty and said Moscow is ready to do its best to help bring peace to West Asia as soon as possible.
Araghchi, who held talks with Omani and Pakistani leadership before arriving in Russia, met Putin in St. Petersburg and thanked him for supporting Iran, state-owned TASS news agency reported.
"Russia is ready to do everything in its power to ensure that peace in the Middle East is achieved as soon as possible," Putin said during his meeting with Araghchi, which was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Revealing that he received a message from Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei last week, Putin asked Araghchi to convey his "gratitude for this message and best wishes for his health and well-being."
He praised the Iranian people for fighting "bravely and heroically" for their sovereignty, Iran's state-run PRESS TV reported.
"We really hope that, based on the courage and desire for independence, the Iranian people, under the guidance of the new leader, will weather this difficult period of trials and peace will come,” Putin said.
He also stressed that Russia “intends to maintain” its strategic relations with Iran.
Araghchi said that the world witnessed Iran’s strength in countering the US during the recent war, and that the Islamic Republic is a "stable and powerful establishment."
"With their courage, the Iranian people succeeded in resisting the US aggression and will be able to endure it,” he said.
He said that it became clear that Iran has “great friends and allies” like Russia, and conveyed “warmest greetings” from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian to the Russian leader.
Araghchi said relations between Moscow and Tehran represent a “strategic partnership at the highest level” and will continue to develop "regardless of circumstances."
"We are grateful to you for the solid and strong positions in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.
Foreign Minister Lavrov said that the talks between President Putin and the Iranian Foreign Minister were "useful and constructive."
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said that Russia is "ready to provide any good offices, any mediation services that are acceptable to the parties."
"We will be ready to do everything so that ultimately peace ensues, guaranteed peace, and that there is no return to hostilities," Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS.
He was asked how Moscow can assist in future negotiations on the Iranian settlement.
Araghchi arrived in Russia after his whirlwind trip to Islamabad, which, according to him, was “very productive” and involved “good consultations" with Pakistan's Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, amid uncertainty over the second round of peace talks to resolve the war in West Asia.
"We held good consultations with our friends in Pakistan. The trip was successful. We assessed the outcome of our recent (meetings) and discussed in what direction and under what conditions talks can move on,” Araghchi said in a video posted on his Telegram channel upon his arrival in St Petersburg.
Referring to the second round of talks between the US and Iran to resolve the conflict in West Asia, Araghchi said: "Developments have taken place in the negotiations."
"Despite some progress in earlier rounds, the talks failed to reach their objectives due to the Americans' approach, the excessive demands they made, and the wrong approaches they adopted. Therefore, it was necessary to consult with our friends in Pakistan to review the latest situation,” Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
He said that the trip to Pakistan was a good opportunity to review developments related to the US-Israeli war against Iran, expressing confidence that “these consultations and coordination between the two countries will be highly significant.”
Araghchi arrived at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport early Monday, where he was welcomed by Russian officials and Iran’s ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, the report said.
The first round of peace talks between Iran and the US, held on April 11 and 12, failed to bring the desired result for the parties to the conflict.
The Iranian minister arrived in Islamabad for the second time on Sunday after a short visit to Oman, where he held talks with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said on security in the Strait of Hormuz and diplomatic efforts to end the Iran-US conflict.
After Araghchi left Pakistan for Oman on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced that US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would no longer be going to Islamabad for talks with Iran, contending that Washington held all the cards on the matter.
Trump on Sunday reiterated that the US and Iranian officials can talk by phone for a peace solution to the conflict.
On Tuesday, Trump extended the two-week ceasefire with Iran indefinitely to give Tehran more time to prepare a unified proposal to end the war, just hours before the truce was set to expire.
The war began when the US and Israel jointly attacked Iran on February 28, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top commanders. The retaliation by the Islamic Republic extended the war to the entire Gulf region.
