Supreme Court seeks reply from States on setting up of community kitchens

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the States on a plea to set up community kitchens in the country..The Bench of Justices NV Ramana and Sanjiv Khanna favoured a scheme of the kind, stating that the country needs this kind of a scheme on account of poverty and hunger.. Representing the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal agreed with the Court that hunger is indeed an issue affecting the country..The Court had earlier issued notice to the concerned and relevant ministeries. Today the Court issued notice to the States and has directed them to file their replies on the same. The Court will hear the matter next on November 26..The plea filed by activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Dhawan and Kunjana Singh, through Advocates Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, Ashima Mandla and Mandakini Singh, makes the following prayers:.Direct the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to formulate a scheme for the implementation of community kitchens and to further ensure that no person should sleep on an empty stomach.Direct the National Legal Services Authority to formulate a scheme to further the provisions of Article 51A of the Constitution of India in order to mitigate deaths resulting from hunger, malnutrition and starvation.Direct the Central Government to create a national food grid for those persons beyond the scope of the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS)..The prayers have been made citing the acute problem of malnutrition and starvation deaths that continue to take place in India, in violation of the Right to Food and inspite of various food security schemes introduced by the government..The petitioners go on to argue that state-funded community kitchens may be a possible way to resolve the food accessibility crisis. In this regard, successful models of community kitchens in various states in India as well as similar models in countries like. US, UK and Canada have been cited. Referring to the successes of these models, the petitioners further argue that community kitchens would not only ameliorate the hunger crisis in India, but also serve to provide employment..In this backdrop, the petitioners have called on the Supreme Court’s intervention to facilitate the setting up of country-wide community kitchens to supplement existing food security schemes. The petitioners have also suggested that such kitchens be managed with state funding or as a Public-Private Partnership activity with funding as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities..[Read Order].Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.