SC reprimands center over community kitchens, gives three weeks to hold meeting with states, UTs

New Delhi, Nov 16 (Bureau) Stating that providing food to people was the primary duty of the state, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded the Centre over its response on framing a policy to implement the Community Kitchen Scheme, and asked it to hold a meeting with states within three weeks. A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli also ordered all the state governments to fulfill their duty of providing food to the poor who are suffering from the situation arising out of the corona pandemic.

“We direct all the states to cooperate with the Government of India in this scheme,” the bench said. The bench also made it clear that if the state government(s) have any objection, it will consider the matter for further hearing. Expressing deep displeasure over the procedures adopted and the work done by the government so far, the bench headed by the Chief Justice said, “It seems that the government is not in a mood to implement the scheme.” The Supreme Court, while reminding the governments of their responsibility, said, “The first responsibility of any welfare state is to save the people from starvation.”

The bench has also asked Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa to file their replies in the matter. The top court was hearing a PIL filed by social activists Anu Dhawan, Isha Dhawan, and Gunjan Singh. The petition has sought setting up of subsidized community kitchens across the country to ensure food security to address the problem of starvation faced by the poor during the pandemic. The petitioners have requested to implement this scheme in all the states and union territories.