VIJAYAWADA: In an apathetic incident giving credence to F1 racer Lewis Hamilton’s ‘poor India’ comments, scores of policemen and sanitary workers posted at the river Krishna for the prestigious F1H2O Amaravati grand prix , on Saturday returned empty stomach after the tourism department failed to arrange enough food supplies.Sanitary workers and cops, who toiled to keep the F1H2O premises clean and secure, protested against the tourism department after being deprived of lunch.Empty food containers greeted 50 sanitary workers, who went into the 'food court’ with plates for food. They complained that food supplies have been short in the past two days. Some of the cops and fire officials, who stood all day long on standby without opportunity to sit even for a while, were also disappointed by the allegedly poor arrangements.“The scenario has been the same for the past few days. We toiled to clean the entire premises while scores of people came to watch the programme. If we are asked to have food after everybody finished eating, then obviously we don’t get a single morsel,” Ranganayaki (name changed), one of the sanitary workers, told TOI.The caterers blamed the food shortage on “several outsiders” eating away the food meant for the staff posted at the venue. “It is difficult for us to keep tabs on who can or cannot eat here,” a caterer said.A few police personnel and others, who had a disappointed look on their faces, later requested Malaxmi Group members, who are the local partners for UIM F1H2O, to make arrangement for the lunch.After an agonizing hour, they received a container of biryani , which was distributed to them. Speaking to TOI, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) chief executive officer Himanshu Shukla said, “We have increased the capacity of serving, now there is no issue for dinner.”

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