Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched the Maa (Mother) scheme for subsidised meals at Rs 5 per plate for the destitute as well as others across Bengal.

Starting on Monday on a trial basis in all 16 borough offices of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and in district headquarters, its ambit would be expanded soon. Run by self-help groups, people on a first come, first serve basis — not confined to the poor — would be able to have a meal of rice, lentils, vegetables and egg curry for Rs 5 between 1pm and 3pm daily.

The state government will provide a subsidy of Rs 15 per plate.

“This initiative is for the common people of Bengal. We already give free rations, but there remains a huge demand for cooked food. Which is why we decided to start this,” said the chief minister at a Nabanna event in the evening.

In her vote-on-account Budget tabled recently, Mamata had earmarked Rs 100 crore for the scheme.

On Monday, she repeatedly asserted that funding would not be an issue.

“You needn’t worry about the money….We have drawn up a meticulous plan and we have our own mechanism to procure ingredients to run the scheme successfully,” she said. “Sure, there could be some teething troubles, but beyond that, this will certainly make a big difference.”

Sources close to her said she did get the idea from community kitchens run by the Left through the pandemic, but wanted to improve on it.

“In a recent internal discussion, she received considerable positive feedback on the Left-run community kitchens and how people appreciated the endeavour at the peak of the pandemic. She made some calls and found out how it was being operated. Before long, she decided to imbibe it and improve upon it,” said a source in Trinamul.

“Yes, this is also rather similar to the AIADMK’s Amma Unavagam in Tamil Nadu, the Congress’s Indira Canteens in Karnataka and the Shiv Sena’s Shiv Bhojan Scheme in Maharashtra. We believe this state-run project might work towards giving us substantial political mileage in the elections,” he added.

A key aspect, he pointed out, like in the case of the Swasthya Sathi (for healthcare), Khadya Sathi (for foodgrain) and Sabooj Sathi (for bicycles to school students), was its universality.

“There aren’t restrictions by way of financial strength or allied parameters. This will be made available to all. That is a big deal and therein lies the big difference with projects and schemes conceived by the BJP-led Centre,” he said.

The BJP mocked the scheme and questioned the source of funds.

BJP’s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh claimed the project exposed the Mamata Banerjee government’s inability to increase people’s spending power. “This is reminiscent of the langar culture during famines back in the 1970s,” he said.

“Have we reached the stage again? This goes to show how miserably she has failed to enable and empower people with income, to afford even basic needs such as food,” added the Midnapore MP.

The first such initiative by any government in India was launched in 2013, by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, which was later proposed for several other states, such as Odisha, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Under the AIADMK government’s Amma Unavagam scheme, municipal corporations in the state establish canteens at multiple places in cities and sell subsidised food at very low prices. The food chains primarily serve south Indian food including idli at Rs 1, sambar rice at Rs 5 a plate, curd rice at Rs 3 a plate, besides pongal, lemon rice, curry leaf rice and chapathi.

A Trinamul MP said Mamata was also encouraged by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, whose team conducted an assessment at the grassroots and endorsed the idea.

“A scheme such as this can only work to our advantage. Whether or not it would be a game-changer remains to be seen,”

Mamata also published the “final report card” for the two welfare initiatives Duare Sarkar and Paray Samadhan, announcing that 32,830 camps were set up in the Duare Sarkar campaign, attended by 25 per cent of the population over five phases. She said of the 1.77 crore applications submitted, cent per cent redress was achieved.

Most applications were for enrolment under the Swasthya Sathi and Khadya Sathi schemes, besides for caste certificates, Shikkhashree, Kanyashree and Krishak Bandhu.

She said under Paray Samadhan, 10,180 local issues -- 8,415 related to infrastructure, 1,247 related to services and 512 humane issues -- were served and resolved.