About 5 crore beneficiaries are getting benefit of PMGKAY scheme in MP: PM

New Delhi, Aug 7 (KNN) The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that around 5 crore beneficiaries are getting the benefit of the PMGKAY scheme in Madhya Pradesh.

He said this during an interaction with the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in Madhya Pradesh today via video conferencing.

The state is celebrating 7th August, 2021 as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana Day. Governor and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh were present on the occasion.

Referring to the Corona pandemic as a once in a century calamity, the Prime Minister said that the entire nation stood as one to fight against the challenge. He reiterated that, in the strategy for dealing with the crisis, India accorded the highest priority to the poor. 

''From the very first day itself, attention was paid to food and employment of the poor and labourers. Not only more than 80 crore citizens are getting free ration but more than 8 crore poor families got free gas cylinders,'' he added.

Talking about the advantages of double engine government at the state, the Prime Minister lauded the state government for record MSP purchase. Madhya Pradesh, this year, purchased wheat from more than 17 lakh farmers and 25 thousand crore rupees were directly deposited in their account. The state established a maximum number of wheat purchase centres this year.

In ‘Double-Engine governments’, state governments supplement and improve the schemes of the central government and increase their power, he said.

It is to be noted that in year 2020, for a period of 8 months i.e., from April 2020 to November 2020, under PM-GKAY, Madhya Pradesh was allocated 21.9 Lakh MT food grains by Central Government for free of cost distribution to NFSA beneficiaries at 5 Kg per person per month. Similarly, an allocation of 16.89 lakh MT of PM-GKAY food grain has been provisioned for the State of Madhya Pradesh for a 7 months period in 2021 i.e., from May 2021 to November 2021.

Under PM-GKAY 2020 (April to November 2020) on an average, 85.4 per cent of food grains was distributed in Madhya Pradesh and under PM-GKAY 2021 (i.e., from May to November 2021), so far, an average of almost 89 per cent of food grains has been distributed in the state of Madhya Pradesh from May 2021 till July 2021.

Madhya Pradesh has established a technologically robust Public Distribution System with an automated supply chain management & Aadhaar seeding of around 100 per cent of the NFSA ration cards in the state. The distribution of food grains in the state is done with maximum transparency, with an average of more than 90.6 per cent of Aadhaar authenticated PDS transactions which is progressively increasing in the recent months.

The ambitious ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONORC) Plan, which is also an integral part of the Prime Minister’s Technology Driven System Reforms under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, was enabled in the state from January 2020 and since inception around 1 crore portability transactions (including intra-state transactions) has been recorded in the state. 

ONORC plan is currently enabled in 33 states/UTs and is serving as a game changer by allowing the NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, to access the NFSA entitlements from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country.

To ameliorate the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruptions caused by the pandemic, the Central Government through Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) almost doubled the quantity of monthly food grains being distributed normally to around 80 crore beneficiaries in the country covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA) by providing them an additional quantity of 5 Kg food grains per person per month, free-of-cost, over and above the normal NFSA entitlement of their Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)/ Priority Householders (PHH) ration cards (i.e., 35 Kg per AAY family and 5 Kg per PHH person per month respectively).

Initially, this additional free benefit under PMGKAY was provided for a period of three months (i.e., April to June 2020). However, with the crisis continuing, the program was extended for another five months (i.e., July to November 2020). After the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, PM-GKAY was once again rolled-out for a period of two months (i.e., May and June 2021) and was further extended for a period of five months (i.e., July to November 2021).