Government To Hold States Food Ministers' Meet On Community Kitchen Scheme

Government will hold a meeting with states' food ministers on Thursday to discuss the modalities of starting a community kitchen for the poor and creating a "national food grid".

The meeting, which would be chaired by minister of food and public distribution Piyush Goyal, is being held after the Supreme Court's directive to the government on preparing a uniform scheme for community kitchens and setting up a national food grid.

"One Nation One Ration Card", Aadhaar-seeding of ration cards and biometric authentication of transactions in fair price shops are some of the other issues which are also to be discussed during the meeting, official sources said.

Looking at the significance of the matter, food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had on November 21, held discussions with chief secretaries as well as food secretaries of states on the model community kitchen scheme.

Many states like Odisha and Tamil Nadu run community kitchens and give cooked food at reasonable rates.

Hearing a writ petition filed jointly by activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Dhawan and Kunjana Singh that prayed for setting up community kitchens and establishment of a national food grid, the top court had asked the government on November 16 to hold a meeting and frame the policy in three weeks' time.

Incidentally, earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had held a review meeting of Poshan Abhiyan with food secretaries of states and asked them to implement it on "mission mode".