Chennai: The Tamil Nadu The government on Tuesday said it may provide land to set up Centeris proposed community kitchenWhereas the capital and recurring expenditure should be borne by the central government.
Speaking at a meeting convened by Union Minister Piyush Goyal with food ministers of state governments, State Food Minister R. sakkarpani Said that the community kitchen should be open to all.
“Our experience has been that only the most qualified people are coming to these facilities. Hence, there may not be a need to restrict it on the basis of certain exclusion criteria,” the minister said. While community kitchens become critically important during times of natural calamities, the minister said the plan needs to be flexible in terms of scaling up their numbers and supplies.
In Tamil Nadu, the state government provides three meals at Amma Canteen in Chennai and two meals at other locations. Sakkarapani said that food for at least two times should be provided through community kitchens. No uniform system or one model may be desirable for a vast country like India.
“It would be appropriate that states should be given freedom and flexibility within the broad framework and guidelines to decide on the actual model and functioning of community kitchens,” Sakkarapani said.
The Tamil Nadu government is running around 650 community kitchens across the state, also known as Amma Canteens, which provide subsidized food to the poor and needy. Of these, 403 are operational in Chennai, 105 in 14 municipal corporations, 138 in municipalities and four in gram panchayats. These include canteens run for patients in government hospitals and attendants of outpatients. Food is served free of cost during natural calamities.
Sakkarapani said that the state government and local bodies are spending Rs 300 crore annually on the implementation of this scheme. The DMK government also proposed to open 500 more community kitchens, which would be known as “Kalaignar Unavagam”.
Speaking at a meeting convened by Union Minister Piyush Goyal with food ministers of state governments, State Food Minister R. sakkarpani Said that the community kitchen should be open to all.
“Our experience has been that only the most qualified people are coming to these facilities. Hence, there may not be a need to restrict it on the basis of certain exclusion criteria,” the minister said. While community kitchens become critically important during times of natural calamities, the minister said the plan needs to be flexible in terms of scaling up their numbers and supplies.
In Tamil Nadu, the state government provides three meals at Amma Canteen in Chennai and two meals at other locations. Sakkarapani said that food for at least two times should be provided through community kitchens. No uniform system or one model may be desirable for a vast country like India.
“It would be appropriate that states should be given freedom and flexibility within the broad framework and guidelines to decide on the actual model and functioning of community kitchens,” Sakkarapani said.
The Tamil Nadu government is running around 650 community kitchens across the state, also known as Amma Canteens, which provide subsidized food to the poor and needy. Of these, 403 are operational in Chennai, 105 in 14 municipal corporations, 138 in municipalities and four in gram panchayats. These include canteens run for patients in government hospitals and attendants of outpatients. Food is served free of cost during natural calamities.
Sakkarapani said that the state government and local bodies are spending Rs 300 crore annually on the implementation of this scheme. The DMK government also proposed to open 500 more community kitchens, which would be known as “Kalaignar Unavagam”.
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