This story is from April 1, 2020

Delhi: Cooked meal twice a day for 12 lakh people at 2,800 locations

Delhi government will expand its base to feed the poor and start distributing cooked meal for 10-12 lakh people twice a day at about 2,800 locations from Wednesday.
Delhi: Cooked meal twice a day for 12 lakh people at 2,800 locations
Homeless people eat a meal distributed by the Delhi government. (AP photo)
NEW DELHI: Delhi government will expand its base to feed the poor and start distributing cooked meal for 10-12 lakh people twice a day at about 2,800 locations from Wednesday.
According to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP government is at present providing ‘jan ahaar’ to almost four lakh people at 800-odd locations in the capital.
To ensure that social distancing was maintained at each hunger relief centre, the Delhi government has now decided to add 2,000 more locations from Wednesday.

Officials said the district magistrates of each of the 11 districts along with officials of the directorate of education (DoE) have been asked to identify schools or other prominent government buildings and set up hunger relief centres.
The locations, said officials, will be in close proximity to jhuggi clusters, resettlement colonies and those pockets where the daily wagers and poor reside so that they don’t have to walk long distances for food.
The government had earlier set up two feeding centres in schools in each municipal ward. With enough space for people to stand and maintain social distancing, the schools were the ideal locations for the purpose, said an official.

The decision to add more such locations was taken during a video conference chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal to review the measures taken to contain Covid-19. Kejriwal, some of his cabinet colleagues and top officers of Delhi government and police attended the video conference.
According to officials, the LG expressed concern over reports of violation of social distancing norms at some of the food distribution centres. “The LG clearly stated that ensuring social distancing should be the topmost priority at the moment to prevent Covid-19 from spreading in the capital. In view of such reports it was agreed upon that the number of food distribution centres should be increased from present 500 to 2,500 so that social distancing is adhered to effectively,” said an official.
The Delhi government currently runs 568 hunger relief centres, each having the capacity to provide food to 500 people. In addition, about 260-odd night shelters also provide cooked food largely to the homeless apart from any other person willing to eat there.
“Right now, food is available at around 800 locations in Delhi. From Wednesday, 2,500 schools and 250 night shelters will start distributing food for 500 people each, which makes it a total of 2,800 centres. We were feeding 3.5-4 lakh people daily and from tomorrow and we will start feeding 10-12 lakh people from tomorrow,” Kejriwal said in his digital press conference on Tuesday, adding that people were crowding at the food centres leading to the decision to increase their numbers.
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