World's largest community kitchen (Langar ) to get GST refund from Centre

02 Jun 2018, 01:43 PM IST

Respite for langars

The Centre has decided to refund its share of GST charged on the purchase of raw food items by charitable religious institutions for distributing free meals to the public, Union Minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Friday.

The Centre's share of GST charged on the raw food materials purchased by the religious institutions will be refunded under a new scheme 'Seva Bhoj Yojana', she told reporters at a press conference in the national capital.

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What changed

The central government's share of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) paid on the purchase of specific items by charitable religious institutions for distributing free food to the public shall be reimbursed as financial assistance by the Government of India, according to the order of the ministry.

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A simple concept

The concept of langars was initiated centuries ago by Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion. The idea behind the kitchen was simple: no one goes hungry. Everybody gets a hot meal regardless of caste, creed and religion.

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Lunchtime at the Golden Temple

The largest free kitchen in the world is the langar at the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Like in all langars, anyone can eat for free here, and many, many people do. On a weekday, about 50,000 people come. On weekends, almost twice as many people visit. Each visitor gets a wholesome vegetarian meal.

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The works

The free kitchen uses firewood, LPG gas and electronic bread makers for the cooking. According to some estimates, 100 LPG cylinders and 5,000 kilograms of firewood are used every day.

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Keeping it spick and span

The kitchen is run by 450 staff, helped by hundreds of other volunteers. Volunteers also wash the 300,000 plates, spoons and bowls used in feeding the people. Each plate is washed 5 times before being used again.

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The food quota

Given the numbers of diners, about 50 quintals of wheat, 18 quintals of daal, 14 quintals of rice, and 7 quintals of milk are consumed daily in the langar kitchen. While most of the work is done by hand, a mechanised oven and conveyor belt churns out 200,000 rotis on a daily basis. The enormous amounts of raw material are usually bought locally or in Delhi, about 450 km away from Amritsar.