Telangana: CM Revanth Reddy intervenes to allow 'Kumari Aunty' eatery to stay where it is

Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday intervened to let a food vendor in Hyderabad's Madhapur area function at the same site after Cyberabad traffic police had asked her to relocate.

Following reports on social media that the vendor, popularly known as Kumari Aunty, has been directed to shut her food stall near the Durgam Cheruvu bridge in the IT cluster, Reddy directed the director general of police and the department of municipal administration and urban development to rescind their decision.

The chief minister is also likely to visit the eatery soon to instil confidence in small business owners like Kumari Aunty.

The food stall, which offers various varieties of rice, chicken, mutton curry and other delicacies, has been operating from its current location for 11 years. The eatery, open daily between noon and 3.00 pm, is popular for a wide variety of items, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and serves 400-500 customers every day during lunch hours, mostly employees of IT and non-IT companies in the area.

As the popular roadside eatery was found to be causing traffic jams near the ITC Kohinoor junction, the traffic police had asked Kumari Aunty to shift to another location.

The move drew flak from many on social media, as the food vendor had gained huge popularity on various platforms in recent months. Even some film personalities were visiting the food stall for movie promotions.

The popularity on social media also created problems for the eatery as a large number of YouTubers were thronging the place every day to shoot videos, causing traffic jams. On Tuesday, the traffic police either towed away vehicles parked on the road near the eatery or penalised them.

Meanwhile, Kumari Aunty has thanked the chief minister for his intervention. "I had never imagined that the chief minister would intervene to help a small businesswoman like me," she said.

She was happy over reports that Revanth Reddy would be visiting her stall soon and said she would serve a dish of his choice.

It remained unclear as to how traffic police would resolve the problem of traffic jams in the busy area as following the chief minister’s direction to allow the eatery to continue business, the traffic snarls are unlikely to resolve themselves.