How Telangana Govt Annapurna Saved Lives During COVID Lockdown

22 Mar, 2021 15:28 IST|Sakshi Post

GHMC  served 2.8 lakh meals for lunch and dinner through 340 canteens

Hyderabad: The Telangana government’s free meals, the Annapurna Scheme, to the needy people during the lockdown was crucial moves of the government for those hit by the lockdown and the pandemic.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had directed the GHMC to offer free meals at Annapurna canteens as against the earlier practice of charging Rs 5 per meal not to leave anyone hungry. The meals were also served for dinner under the scheme. Vendors and the under-privileged who lost their livelihoods due to the lockdown depended on the free meals.

The GHMC in association with the Hare Krishna Movement Charitable Trust operates the Annapurna canteens and during the lockdown, more than one crore free meal was served from these canteens. Each day, 1.50 lakh meals were served, with 90,000 for lunch and 60,000 for dinner. This was against the pre-lockdown figure of 40,000 meals a day through 140 canteens, with the figure later going up to 2.8 lakh meals a day for lunch and dinner in GHMC limits through 340 canteens.

The meals also came as a boon for daily wage earners and also for students who were stuck in the city due to the lockdown. Food packs were also served through mobile Annapurna canteens for people with special needs and senior citizens.

Good Samaritans on work

 The unprecedented lockdown disrupted everything and lakhs of people were left looking for crucial basics like groceries to ICU beds and more. It initiated a massive crisis that required god-like efforts from people and the government.

Groceries, blood, plasma, medication, food, PPE kits, digital platforms offering free medical services, transportation, and many more were provided by the people, for the people.

Some organizations like Youngistaan Foundation pooled up all of their resources together and served 1,45,430 meals to daily wage workers in addition to providing groceries to over 15,000 families.

Individuals like Mahesh Talari mobilized crucial medical commodities like blood, as blood donations had stopped during the lockdown. He utilized the support of Cyberabad and Rachakonda police and raised over 10,000 units of blood, providing 5,000 units to Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society and 5,000 to Osmania and Gandhi hospitals.

Other individuals and NGOs adopted orphanages during the lockdown, as Anuradha Rao, a child rights activist shares, “we adopted an orphanage and donated groceries for a few months for the children there.”

Bachelors food in Lockdown was gone for a toss. It was quite a tough time for them to handle things. Especially for the boys it's been hard for food for them, the ones who depend on hotels for food.

Many also had long drawn discussions with mothers, friends, and acquaintance over the phone for striking the right proportions while cooking favorite dish.

On the whole, Covid-19 taught me the hardest lessons and made me cherish all those happy moments in my life which I otherwise failed to acknowledge. Caught in life’s cobwebs, here I am, a better man prepared to fight the new mutants of the deadly virus!

Mask Up!

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