Temples supply food at hospitals

Around 8,000 packets of food cooked and packed in temples in the city were distributed at various hospitals on Friday. Attenders of patients and hospital staff were given the food, which included toma

Around 8,000 packets of food cooked and packed in temples in the city were distributed at various hospitals on Friday. Attenders of patients and hospital staff were given the food, which included tomato rice, sambar rice, vegetable rice and curd rice. The Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments P. K. Sekar Babu had recently announced that one lakh food packets would be served at hospitals through the Annadhanam Scheme. "We had asked if hospitals require food and had made arrangements to send that many packets," said a source in the Department. However, a retired department official questioned the rationale behind asking temples to provide food packets as they were already cash-strapped to spend from their reserves. "Several temples have foreclosed recurring deposits to ensure that they carry out the scheme. They have not had any income over the last one year," he pointed out.