A feast for supporters at Hazare’s fast venue

Even outside the Maidan,food and water were aplenty,with truck-loads of people giving away water pouches and bananas.

Vatsal Gupta (11) enthusiastically served food near one of the entrances. “I have come from Shimla to visit my nani (grandmother) who stays in Kamla Nagar. I have been serving food since morning,’’ he said. He was part of the Welcome Group from Kamla Nagar.

Rakesh Khanna,Secretary of Welcome Group,said they had been doing “samaj sewa” for 14 years now. They were distributing kadi-chawal,water and biscuits.

“We have prepared food for 50,000 people. Around 400 kg of kadi has been cooked to go with 600 kg of sela rice. Over 60 kg of oil was used in the preparation. We have been distributing food since 11 am,’’ said Khanna.

Khanna said a total of Rs 3 lakh had been spent by them on purchase of vegetables,cooking material and other refreshments over the last two days. “The cooks are not charging us anything because they also support the cause.’’

The cooks of Sai Rasoi,who were preparing aloo-puri for the evening,said,“Around 100 kg of flour and 100 kg of potato would be used in the meal. We served daal-chawal in the morning and also distributed tea,’’ said Attar Singh.

People from R S Caterers were distributing aloo sabzi-puri. They said they had been hired by the Aggarwal community.

Promod Sharma,at another food distribution counter,claimed that they had started with two cooks on Friday and had 25 cooks helping them voluntarily on Monday.

People from Faridabad and Ghaziabad had also set up stalls and were serving rajma-chawal,sabzi,etc.