The Indian Express: New Delhi: Sunday, 09 August 2015.
Of the Rs 14 crore annual subsidy that has MPs in
a soup, hardly Rs 3 crore goes towards food. The staff’s top concern most days
is getting raw materials past security.
What’s eating
Parliament was a question on top of many minds last week. At least some of them
also wondered what Parliament ate.
It was an RTI
reply that stirred the pot, saying the Parliament canteen serves shami kebabs
for Rs 14 a plate and a “three-course lunch” for Rs 61 getting a subsidy of Rs
14 crore every year. Television and social media outrage followed, but what
really lit the fire was the BJD’s Jay Panda starting a signature campaign for
subsidies enjoyed by lawmakers to end. Twelve MPs led by the CPM’s M B Rajesh
countered, asking Panda about the government largesse enjoyed by his family
companies.
With
parliamentarians being easy fodder, demands were raised seeking their head on a
platter. But, for once, the protesters may have a lemon.
Of the total
subsidy of Rs 14 crore revealed by the RTI query, about Rs 11-12 crore goes
towards salary of the staff manning the canteen, sourced from the Railways.
Besides,
figures show, the monthly sales at the canteen remain almost constant during
House sessions and in between them, as do the number of customers around 5,000
every day. Simply put, it’s not just MPs and journalists who avail of the
facilities. The largest chunk of customers are, in fact, Parliament staff,
ministries whose standing/consultative committee meetings happen in Parliament
or its annexe buildings, members of other parliamentary panels, who come both
during and in between sessions, as well as parties holding press conferences
there.
The per day
sales when Parliament is not in session amount to Rs 2,09,939.70. The days it
is, the figure is Rs 2,08,670.59.
When it
started out, Parliament canteen used to have silver-plated utensils and
cutlery, and up to 10,000 customers a day.
“An analysis
by the Lok Sabha Secretariat reveals that of the total number of people who eat
in Parliament canteen now, only 9 per cent are MPs,” says an official involved
in the running of the canteen who did not want to be identified. “Just about Rs
2.5-3 crore is actual subsidy for food,” he adds. “The rest is establishment
cost.”
Though
referred to as a single canteen, Parliament actually has at least four places
where food is served, including one in the Parliament annexe and another in the
library building. Room No. 70, on the first floor, is where the canteen
reserved for MPs is located, though they more often order food in the Central
Hall or in their offices. It is at the facility in the library building that
the food is cooked, ever since gas cylinders were disallowed inside the main Parliament
building in 2010 by former speaker Meira Kumar after a couple of incidents of
fire.
Cooked food
reaches Parliament before 11 am and is kept in large bain maries which keep
food gently warm through those heated House hours till lunch.
Groceries are
sourced on a daily basis from Kendriya Bhandar, while vegetables, fruits etc
are bought from Mother Dairy outlets around Parliament. All bills are settled
by Northern Railways.
Getting the
raw materials inside is no mean task. There are security checks at every point,
sometimes heated exchanges too, and supplies are loaded and unloaded thrice for
checking and X-rayed twice.
The only
items sourced in-house are milk and milk products, from the DMS (Delhi Milk
Scheme) booth on the Parliament campus. Tenders for desserts are given out
annually, to usually well-known Central Delhi vendors such as Bangla Sweets and
Kaleva.
It is the
rates that make the largely ordinary food stand out and make it such a hot
potato. Soup with a slice of bread costs Rs 8, a vegetarian thali comes for Rs
18, while a non-vegetarian thali is for Rs 33. A fried egg and mutton curry
costs Rs 20. A fruit salad costs Rs 10 without cream, and Rs 14 with it.
The rates
haven’t changed since 2010, though a government has fallen since then, with
inflation cited as one of the reasons.
While canteen
officials decide the daily menu, they can only pick from a long list of items
and prices approved by the Food Management Committee of Parliament. Its current
head is TRS MP A P Jithender Reddy. He has many fans for his “commitment” to
serving authentic Hyderabadi biryani and for getting the chefs trained at
Gymkhana Club.
For the
regulars, more than the prices, the most attractive feature are the staff. The
400-odd railway employees easily qualify as some of the most polite government
servants around perhaps a reflection of their august surroundings.
The House may
be a cauldron, but inside here, the MPs too are equally genial. An official
recollects how he was at the billing counter when an MP walked in. “After he
had ordered eight-nine items, I looked up and saw it was M F Husain. I
instinctively looked at his feet, and they were shoeless. I told him he could
have just ordered and the food would have been delivered. He was very nice and
said he preferred taking it himself.”
The headiest
day at the canteen though was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked in
unscheduled in March this year and said, “Bhojan do.” “I just brought him
whatever vegetarian food there was and at the end of it, there was not a speck
of it left on the plate. He gave the waiter Rs 100,” he says.
Most MPs are
as non-fussy, staffers attest, and equally big tippers often paying up to 10
times the price of the food. There are exceptions though. An actor MP known to
have a sweet tooth and a not-so-sweet temper who frequently orders in the
Central Hall isn’t a favourite.
Incidentally,
till just about a year ago, what was on Parliament’s table was the quality and
not the price of food served in the canteen. Agitated Rajya Sabha MPs, led by
Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party, had raised the matter of parliamentarians
falling ill after having the food; a case in point being senior SP leader
Ramgopal Yadav.
If there has
been a change, it is in the case of the humble roti. The roti makers that the
canteen had procured did not churn them out hot or round enough. After many
complaints, these were junked, the strict embargo on fire relaxed, and a
provision made for rotis to be made in-house.
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