New Delhi, Nov 25 The Centre has invited food ministers from across the country on Thursday to discuss the issue of community kitchen and other issues that will lead to the creation of a national food grid for those persons who are beyond the scope of the Public Distribution System to fight with hunger and malnutrition.
Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal will chair the meeting organised by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) under his ministry.
The meeting is prompted due to a writ petition in the Supreme Court regarding establishing the concept of community kitchens across the country, formulation of requisite scheme to provide food to the needy persons and creating a national food grid for those persons who are beyond the scope of the Public Distribution System to fight with hunger and malnutrition.
Incidentally, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data released on Wednesday has revealed falling nutritional indicators across several states.
The Supreme Court has directed the Union of India to come up with a 'Model Community Kitchens Scheme' agreeable to the states/union territories (UT) within three weeks' time.
The Court has also directed all the state governments/union territories to attend the meeting to be arranged/organised by the Union of India and cooperate with them in coming up with the said scheme, which can be made uniformly applicable to all the states/union territories.
Some of the likely key issues that will be discussed during the meeting are Model Community Kitchen Scheme, One Nation One Ration Card-status of implementation, Aadhaar seeding of Ration Cards, Biometrically authenticated FPS transactions and others.
Earlier, the Secretary, DFPD, held a meeting on November 21, 2021 with the Chief Secretaries and Food Secretaries of states and UTs to discuss the model Community Kitchen Scheme.
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