Aficionados of Mysuru City Corporation had taken a couple of years ago the laudable initiative to facilitate the rapidly expanding virtual army of footpath mobile canteen operators across the city’s 65 Wards, in consultation with an expert on the nuances of business from Kolkata. Intending to ease the crowding by the mobile canteen operators as well as their patrons in many streets of the city during the evening hours, resulting in inconvenience to citizens as well as deteriorating sanitation, it was considered appropriate to create platforms in properly selected locations that would satisfactorily address the problems. As time has passed, it is business as usual while the administration in urban local body seems to have not pursued the programme to its logical end. The patrons of mobile canteens seem to be facing no serious problems of food-borne tummy troubles unlike the case of devotees of some places of worship who were felled after consuming prasada.
Similar to creation of kiosks of bhelpuri vendors at Juhu in Mumbai, a few cities in North India are reported to have marked zones in their territories to carry out the business of mobile canteens without any glitch. Also, Bengaluru City Corporation is learnt to have issued 17,000 licences to the operators. However, the manner of functioning by the officials in keeping the system well-oiled leaves much to be desired.
