Uttar Pradesh becomes first state to geotag community kitchens: Official

Uttar Presh has become first state in country to geotag its 7,368 community kitchens and community shelters across 75 districts which produce 12 lakh food packets a day, a senior official said on Sunday. state government has also tied up with Google to 'Geo-map' locations of all se establishments on Google Maps app for ease of beneficiaries, he said.

" sudden onset of COVID-19 lockdown in country threw rmal life out of gear but it was daily wrs and construction labourers who especially bore brunt," Relief Commissioner Sanjay Goyal said.

Yogi ityanath government h anticipated crisis early on and successfully started establishing community kitchens by mobilising state resources on a massive scale and also reaching out to civil society, religious establishments and n-governmental organisations, he said.

"Establishing community kitchens in equate numbers in each of 75 districts was a mammoth task but our respective district magistrates took challenge he-on," Goyal said.

" problem was compounded by an influx of migrants who set out for ir vills to avoid getting trapped in or states. However, despite odds, we have mand to start 7,368 community kitchens in all 75 districts. se kitchens are producing 12 lakh food packets every day," he said.

More than two crore food packets have been distributed in Uttar Presh since March 25.

Out of se 7,368 community kitchens, 668 are being run by NGOs and religious institutions, he ded.

" concept of relief camps and community kitchens is t new as every year, DMs work out similar plans in areas affected by yearly droughts/floods. Hence, all our DMs are well-versed in providing relief to common man," official said. challenge here, however, was how to maintain social distancing and still feed needy.

"refore, we focused on providing food packets at location itself so that required social distancing protocol is maintained," Goyal said.

One of biggest problems that state faced early on during lockdown was lack of information among general populace regarding location of shelter homes and community kitchens. government recognised issue and directed Department of Information Techlogy to find a solution, he said. IT Department, in turn, approached Remote Sensing Applications Centre (RSAC), Luckw, for a solution.

RSAC promptly developed an application by feeding location data as per latitudes and longitudes of all community kitchens and shelter homes across state.

" app is revolutionary in terms that it will help guide needy to nearest centre," official said.

To simplify it furr, Google has been roped in to provide geo-location of all such centres through Google Maps app.

"We have asked Google to integrate geo-locations of all community kitchens and shelter homes on its mobile map application for ease of general public. As of w, location of all shelter homes and community kitchens in and around Aligarh have been integrated with Google Maps and anyone can access m by searching with keyword 'community kitchen', followed by district's name," Relief Commissioner said.

data regarding all such facilities will go live on Google Maps in next couple of days, he ded. PTI SMI IJT