Minister Piyush Goyal's meeting on community kitchens ends on positive note

Union Minister of Food and Distribution Piyush Goyal organised a meeting with state ministers to discuss about the formation of pan-India community kitchens. Leshi Singh, JDU member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, told ETV that the meeting concluded with a road-map for forming community kitchens across the country in order to combat the issues of food shortage and malnutrition

New Delhi: A meeting on the formation of community kitchens held between Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and the state ministers on Thursday ended on a positive note.

Leshi Singh, Food and Public Distribution Minister of Bihar, told ETV that the meeting concluded with a road-map for forming community kitchens in order to combat the issues of food shortage and malnutrition in the country.

She said that through such a policy, it will be possible for the citizens of India to buy ration at subsidised rates from any part of the country. However, people need to link their Aadhar Cards with their ration cards to avail the benefits of this scheme, and a considerable population do not have the cards linked. This problem was also discussed and the plausible solutions to the problem were suggested by the ministers present at the meeting, as told by Leshi Singh.

She also underlined the fact that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), which was to be terminated after November 30, has also been extended by 4 months by the central government. It will now remain active until March 2022, for which Singh thanked the Centre. Under PMGKAY, about 80 crore people will get 5kgs of food grains per month per person, under the National Food Security Act 2013.

This initiative was taken by the central government during the initial days of the pandemic, with an aim to facilitate food at subsidised rates for those hit adversely by the pandemic. In this meeting, the advantages and the ways to make the best use of this scheme were also discussed.

Discussions on the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' (ONORC) scheme were also held, Singh said adding that all the ministers present at the meeting gave their suggestions on the initiative.

A bench of Supreme Court led by CJI NV Ramana had ordered the Centre and the state governments to frame and execute a policy for forming subsidised canteens and community kitchens pan-India, in the wake of the food crisis amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

In the verdict that came out on October 27, the bench said that 'a welfare state must ensure that nobody dies of hunger'. The Supreme Court had given the Centre and the state food authorities a time of three weeks to plan and chalk out a plan for the same.