The Uttar Pradesh government has now launched the much-needed community kitchen to feed the poor and those stranded due to the lockdown.

The community kitchens began partially on Thursday (26 March) but became fully functional on Friday (27 March).

According to the additional chief secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi, "On day one, we prepared over one lakh food packets and distributed them among the needy in the state. Around 15 NGOs and other groups are helping the government while religious groups and other outfits have also offered to join the movement. In the first phase, Lucknow, Agra, Noida and Ghaziabad will have community kitchen."

The state government has been distributing essential commodities to the poor and homeless but most of them have problems in cooking food, due to unavailability of kerosene and wood.

Since they are required to stay indoors, arranging for this is a problem.

"The community kitchens will serve food to the homeless and also to people who have been stranded due to the lockdown," the official said.

Several individuals and social groups, including religious groups, have already started serving cooked food to the people.

Awasthi said that chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also directed that public address systems be fitted on government vehicles so that people could be made aware of the government decisions.

The availability of cooked food will also be announced on the public address system.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)