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UP govt gears up to run community kitchens for poor
The UP government’s initiative is, however, is said to be in keeping with the Supreme Court’s order in January this year asking the Centre to consider a model scheme for community kitchens across India and provide additional foodgrains to states to deal with malnutrition and hunger deaths
LUCKNOW The Yogi Adityanath-led government has begun preparations to set up community kitchens across Uttar Pradesh with a view to providing free or highly subsidised food to the poor, after extending the free ration distribution scheme it had launched before the assembly polls, said officials.
The UP government’s initiative is, however, is said to be in keeping with the Supreme Court’s order in January this year asking the Centre to consider a model scheme for community kitchens across India and provide additional foodgrains to states to deal with malnutrition and hunger deaths.
“The state government has made up its mind to be quick to act on the Apex court’s order by setting up community kitchens in cities and villages so that the poor get nutritious cooked food for free or at a very nominal prices,” said a government official.
Chief secretary DS Mishra will be holding an important meeting this week with the departments concerned to discuss the modalities for setting up and running community kitchens. Different departments may be given different roles in running such kitchens, he said.
“While the urban and rural local bodies may set up and run community kitchens in cities and villages, respectively, the department of food and civil supplies may be asked to make foodgrains available to such kitchens. The ICSDS department will ensure nutritional and caloric value of the food to be served in community kitchens,” added the official.
He said the pricing of food, the criteria for giving access to people to community kitchens and funding were among important issues that would be discussed and thrashed out soon before the final call is taken on running such kitchens.
The Apex court, on January 18, 2022, directed the Centre to consider preparing a model scheme for community kitchens in consultation with states across India to endure food security for the poor.
Maintaining that the Centre did not dispute the existence of malnutrition or the need for community kitchens, KK Venugopal, attorney-general of India, told the court: “The problem is the funding. The states have to source the funds for community kitchen programme by themselves. We cannot divert money from 131 welfare schemes we run.”
The UP government has already been distributing free rations to 15 crore beneficiaries every month since December 2021. The beneficiaries get packed 1kg of whole chana, 1 litre of edible oil, 1 kg of salt once every month apart from 5kg wheat/rice per unit (family member) per month.
Uttar Pradesh is among more than a dozen states that fall in the ‘severe’ category as far as prevalence of undernutrition or malnourishment is concerned.
