All Indira Canteens in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike limits will provide food packers (breakfast, lunch and dinner) free of charge to people from low-income groups including migrant workers, in the city. The food packers will be distributed from 12 May to 24 May (till they end of the lockdown), the BBMP said.
This after the Karnataka High Court pointed out that certain categories of people have stopped receiving income as a result of the lockdown. The government had started a similar scheme in the last lockdown in 2020 too as the HC was hearing the same case. But later the free food service was withdrawn.
The beneficiaries who receive food packets at Indira Canteen should provide an identity card such as voter identification card/Aadhaar card/DL/labour department identity card to obtain the meals, the BBMP said.
Each person/beneficiary will be given a maximum of three packets of food, depending on the total number of family members on their ration card.
The beneficiaries who come to get food packages at Indira Canteens in the city must comply with Covid-19 norms. Everyone must wear a mask, maintain physical distancing and stand in queues to receive food packets.
The HC has asked not only Bengaluru but all cities on what decision has been made in regard to ensuring food security. One of the petitioners in the case has asked the government to give dry ration kits, sufficient for 21 days, and has said it should be supplied at the doorstep of needy individuals as done in the last lockdown period.
But the Advocate General told the court that not only BBMP but all civic bodies in the state with help of non-profits will ensure that cooked food is supplied.