SC refuses to pass any direction on setting up community kitchens in the country

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The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to pass any direction on a plea seeking formulation of a scheme on setting up of community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition. The SC observed that the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes are already being implemented by the Centre and states, reported news wire PTI.

"We have not examined whether the concept of community kitchens is better or wiser alternative available to states to achieve the objective of NFSA. Rather, we would leave it open to states and union territories to ensure implementation of alternative welfare schemes," the apex court said.

"The National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes are being implemented by the Union of India and the states to ensure access to adequate quantity of food at affordable prices to people. We do not propose to issue any further direction in this regard," said the bench hearing the case, added PTI report.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal passed this judgement on the PIL filed by social activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Singh and Kunajan Singh seeking directions to all states and union territories to formulate a scheme for community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition.

As per PTI report, the plea had alleged that many children under the age of five die every day due to hunger and malnutrition. This condition was violated various fundamental rights of the citizens, including the right to food and life.

The plea by the social activists also sought a direction to the Centre for creating a national food grid for people falling outside the purview of the public distribution scheme and issuance of order to the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) for formulating a scheme to mitigate hunger-related deaths.

The activists had referred to the state-funded community kitchens being run at subidised rates in states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi, and also referred to the concepts of soup kitchen, meal centre, food kitchen or community kitchen in other countries.

(With PTI inputs)