Kolkata, Nov 24 (UNI) Leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday thanked the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for
extending the free ration provided under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana till March 2022.
Taking to his tweeter, Mr Adhikari said, “I heartily thank the Union Cabinet led by Hon'ble PM
Shri @narendramodi ji for extending the free ration provided under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana till
March 2022.”
“Atleast TMC can claim "Banglar Meye" is distributing the ration while campaigning for the
upcoming Municipal elections,” he added.
The Union Cabinet has approved the extension for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna
Yojana (PMGKAY-Phase V) for a period of another 4 months i.e. December 2021 till March
2022 @ 5 kg per person per month free of cost for all the beneficiaries covered under the
National Food Security Act (NFSA) [Antodaya Anna Yojana & Priority Households] including
those covered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
Phase-I and Phase-II of this scheme was operational from April to June, 2020 and July to
November, 2020 respectively. Phase-III of the scheme was operational from May to June, 2021. Phase-IV of the scheme is currently operational for July-November, 2021 months.
The PMGKAY scheme for Phase V from December 2021 till March, 2022 would entail an
estimated additional food subsidy of Rs. 53344.52 Crore
The total outgo in terms of food-grains for PMGKAY Phase V is likely to be about 163 LMT.
It may be recalled that in the wake of economic disruptions caused by the unprecedented
outbreak of COVID-19 in the country last year, the Government in March 2020 had announced the distribution of additional free-of-cost foodgrains (Rice/Wheat) to about 80 Crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries at the scale of 5 Kg per person per month under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), over and above the regular monthly NFSA foodgrains i.e.,
regular entitlements of their ration cards, so that the poor, needy and the vulnerable households/beneficiaries do not suffer on account of non-availability of adequate foodgrains
during the times of economic crisis.
So far, under the PM-GKAY(phase I to IV) the Department had allocated a total of almost 600
LMT foodgrains to the States/UTs equivalent to about Rs. 2.07 Lakh Crore in food subsidy.
The distribution under PMGKAY-IV is presently ongoing, and as per the reports available from States/UTs so far, 93.8% foodgrains have been lifted and nearly 37.32 LMT (93.9% of July’21),
37.20 LMT (93.6% of Aug’21), 36.87 LMT (92.8% of Sept’21), 35.4 LMT (89% of Oct’21) and
17.9 LMT ( 45% of Nov’21) foodgrains have been distributed to about 74.64 Crore, 74.4 Crore,
73.75 Crore, 70.8 Crore and 35.8 crore beneficiaries respectively.
Going by the experience of earlier phases, the performance of PMGKAY-V is also expected to
be on the same high level as achieved before.
Overall, the government will be incurring an expenditure of nearly Rs.2.60 lakh Crore in PMGKAY Phase I- V.
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