Bhubaneswar: Health and Family Welfare department Commissioner-cum-Secretary Shalini Pandit today urged the state government to open Aahaar (cheap meal) centres at 93 hospitals across Odisha that are being developed as ‘Ama Hospitals’ under the 5T initiative.

Pandit urged the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department to run Aahaar centres at these hospitals for all days in a week.

Notably, the state government has so far opened as many as 158 Aahaar centres at various places across Odisha, including many Sub-Divisional Hospitals and District Headquarters Hospitals and medical colleges, to provide subsidized food to the poor people.

The scheme was launched in 2015. At present, the state government is providing meal at Rs 5 at Aahaar centres.

In a related development, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the Odisha State Aahaar Society functioning under the H&UD department. The money has been sanctioned from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF), said a senior official.

The Odisha State Aahaar Society has been sanctioned Rs 228.76 crore from the CMRF in several phases till 2021-22 financial year, added the official.