AAP flags lapses in Atal Canteen scheme

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has raised serious questions over the implementation of the BJP government’s Atal Canteen scheme in Delhi, alleging that several facilities exist only on paper. After exposing non-functional canteens in Shalimar Bagh and Pitampura, AAP Delhi state president Saurabh Bharadwaj revealed that the Atal Canteens in Shakur Basti and Punjabi Camp are also yet to become operational.

“CM Rekha Gupta inaugurated 45 Atal Canteens. Before the inauguration, the government had claimed that 100 Atal Canteens would be opened, but on the day of the inauguration, only 45 were listed. Our fact check shows that canteens in Shalimar Bagh, Pitampura, Shakur Basti and Punjabi Camp are merely on paper,” Bharadwaj said.

Highlighting public grievances, he added, “The Atal Canteens have not even completed a week, and people have already started complaining about not getting food. This ‘Phulera-Panchayat’ style BJP government is even dragging the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee into this canteen fraud.”

AAP officials visited Bhagat Singh Camp in Shakur Basti and Punjabi Camp in Peeragarhi, both listed among the inaugurated canteens. “At both locations, either the canteen was not operational or construction had barely started. In Punjabi Camp, trees were cut illegally to make way for the canteen, even after GRAP-IV restrictions were in place,” Bharadwaj stated.