The federal government decided to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for a further three months on Wednesday. The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the free ration programme through December on September 28.
In the meeting, it was decided that the government would invest more than Rs 40,000 crores in this programme over the following three months. In this programme, the government has already committed 3.8 lakh crore rupees.
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It is important to note that after COVID-19, no funding was allocated for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). Despite this, the government declared on March 26, 2022 that it would continue for an additional six months after the budget. The government had stated at the time that approximately Rs 80,000 crore would be spent to continue this programme for another six months. It is anticipated that an additional expenditure of about Rs 40,000 crores will be made on it now that the government has decided to extend it for three more months.
In accordance with this programme, the government offers the ration card holder's family free rations. So far, 1,003 lakh metric tonnes of food grains have been distributed by the government through this programme. In order to provide free 5 kg of foodgrains per person each month, the programme was introduced in the year 2020. To lessen their suffering during the lockdown, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) covers about 80 crore beneficiaries.
Since then, the programme has been repeatedly extended, and it is now valid till December 2022.
The PMGKAY scheme was initially only announced for a three-month period in 2020–21, in April, May, and June of that year (Phase-I). Later, the government extended the program's start date to July 2020. (Phase-II).
