Community kitchen inaugurated at Silchar
Silchar   10-Oct-2010

This is for the first time that such kitchens have been commissioned in the Barak valley, where people can buy LPG on hourly basis of its use. Users will not have to bring their own oven, as it is being provided free of cost with LPG.

Community kitchens, an initiative by the Central Government under the special programme of IndianOil, is being set up to enable people to save gas and time while cooking and check deforestation.

At the Dakhsin Kishanpur GP, 8 km from the city, the community kitchen has been set up by Sunbeam Gas Agency, with the initiative of the Silchar area office of the Indian Oil. The project is mooted as part of the Union Government’s ‘Vision-2015’ programme to make the domestic LPG available to the deprived sections of the society wherever possible through the common LPG kitchen mode.

The programme is especially designed for poor families. Users will not have to bring their own oven, as it is being provided free of cost with LPG. The kitchens are under the supervision of an IndianOil (IOCL) personnel. As per the scheme guidelines, a minimal cooking charge of Rs 5.67 for an hour would be levied the users of the community kitchen. But the rates will vary from area to area.

Salimuddin Choudhury, managing partner of the Sunbeam Gas Agency said that each kitchen is equipped with five ovens and four cylinders, thus a total of 18 families can use the kitchens at a given time to prepare food. The kitchens are under the supervision of an IndianOil (IOCL) personnel. “Use of community kitchens will save time, money and energy as well as deforestation,” he added.

Kamalesh Debnath, area manager of the IOCL, Silchar area office, said that in the current financial year, oil companies of the country have proposed to set up more than 100 community kitchens in Assam as part of their corporate social responsibility. The community kitchen is a part of the scheme.