Weighing scale in IT canteen!

HYDERABAD: Employees of an Indian IT major in the city are a flummoxed lot these days. The new weighing scale in the canteen has left them confused and hungry. According to sources, the caterers to whom the canteen services are outsourced have started weighing food before it’s served.

“Earlier they never used to weigh the food and we got much more than what we are getting now,” says an employee under the condition of anonymity.

Disgusted

The practice which started recently has left the employees surprised and some disgusted.

“It’s so humiliating to stand there and watch as the food is weighed before it is served to us,” says another employee.

The company removed the scale on Friday after receiving complaints from its employees. “They don’t need the scale any more because they know how much to serve now,” alleges the employee. However the company officials maintain that this was done to ensure that the employee got his/her money’s worth and not to ‘ration’ food.

“We eat how much we are served, we can’t ask for second helping. For Rs.30 earlier we got three ‘parathas’ but now we are getting just two. The cost of ‘biryani’ has gone up by Rs.10, but the quantity hasn’t,” says another employee.

While employees allege that there was no second helping, officials at the company said that this wasn’t the case and that they can’t really control the amount of food being served as it’s completely in the hands of the vendors.

Others allege that the food committee which is supposed to supervise the quality and pricing has turned blind to their complaints. “The ‘chicken biryani’ doesn’t have any chicken in it,” complains M. Abhishek (name changed).

Owing to the fuel hike and inflation, other companies too have been forced to hike the cost of food.

The cost of meals has gone up by an average of Rs.5-Rs. 10. Many complain that the quality of food too has come down. “For a month or so, we have noticed a drop in the quality of food being served to us. Also the number of items being served too has come down,” says a software engineer working for Oracle.

“They are resorting to cost cutting measures at various ends, but the least they could have done was to spare the canteen,” laments M. Sreeja (name changed), working with Satyam. Though beverages and biscuits still remain free of cost in most of the IT companies, employees say that this too might not last too long.

Yuva Garjana: boost to Nandamuri family

GUNTUR: The Nandamuri family led by film star Balakrishna is the new hope for a majority of Telugu Desam Party supporters and second line of leaders in the district for giving a kick-start to restore its past glory.

Party leaders and supporters from Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts have taken ‘Yuva Garjana’ on November 5 as “the event” to give a boost to the party’s fortunes riding on the popularity of Balakrishna, Junior NTR and Tarakaratna.

Tarakaratna was open in his assertions in Nellore that Balakrishna was the man to look forward to for the future prospects of the TDP. Many leaders of the dominant community feel that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu cannot be relied upon in the coming elections and the Nandamuri family could improve their chances of springing back to power.

Advani promised to bring Telangana bill, says Goud

NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani has assured that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would introduce a bill for the creation of a separate Telangana State from the existing Andhra Pradesh immediately after coming to power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Nava Telengana Praja Party (NTPP) president T. Devender Goud, told The Hindu here on Tuesday, after meeting Mr. Advani, that the BJP was very much supportive of the formation of the separate State. Similarly NDA convenor and senior JD (U) leader George Fernandes and Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh too said they were agreeable for Telengana.

Mr. Goud replied in the negative when asked whether BJP-NTPP electoral tie-up for the coming Assembly/Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh was discussed with Mr. Advani.

Mr. Goud, a former minister in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, quit the party and floated NTPP a few months ago following differences with Mr. Naidu on Telangana.

The main purpose of his Delhi visit was to make the Centre to introduce the bill before poll and mobilise support for it among the political parties.

Meanwhile Telangana Intellectuals Forum (TIF), a non-political organisation, has sought early introduction of the bill on Telangana in Parliament.