Govt to provide free food to poor under PM Kalyan ANN Yojana

The Govt on friday decided to resume providing free food grains to the poor in May and June to help them to overcome economic hardship in the second wave of corona pandemic . They are going to provide 5 kg additional food grains for free to PDS beneficiaries under the PMGKAY for 2 months . The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana was announced in 2020 for three months till july later extended till the month of november to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poor .

In this scheme the govt will give , additional 5 kg wheat and rice along with 1 kg pulses to each family per month was provided beneficiaries registered under the National food Security Act (NFSA) . About 80 lakh tonne of food grains will be required to meet the demand for two months . PM Modi stressed that it is very important that the poor have nutritional support when the country is facing a second wave of corona pandemic .

Under the PMGKAY last year , over 200 lakh tonne of free food grains were provided amounting to a fiscal outgo of over rs 75000 crore, covering 80.96 crores NFSA beneficiaries by the govt . This will be “over and above NFSA foodgrains for next two months i.e. May and June 2021 on the same pattern as the earlier “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)”, it added. “Under this special scheme (PMGKAY), around 80 Crore NFSA beneficiaries covered under both categories of NFSA, namely Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Householders (PHH), will be provided with an additional quota of free-of-cost foodgrains (Rice/Wheat) at a scale of 5 Kg per person per month, over and above their regular monthly entitlements under NFSA. Government of India will bear all expenditure of over ₹26,000 Crore on account of food subsidy and Central assistance to states/UTs on account of intrastate transportation etc,” it added.

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