Cabinet approves extension of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till September 2022

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday approved extension of 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)' by six months till September 2022.

The phase-5 of PMGKAY scheme was to end in March 2022. The government has spent approximately Rs 2.60 lakh crore so far on the scheme and another Rs 80,000 crore will be spent over the next six months till September 2022, taking the total expenditure under PMGKAY to nearly Rs 3.40 lakh crore. 

"Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly abated and economic activities are gathering momentum, this PMGKAY extension would ensure that no poor household goes to bed without food during this time of recovery," the government said in a release.

PMGKAY is a welfare scheme announced by the government in March 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the scheme has been extended multiple times. It envisages fulfilling the food requirement of the needy by providing foodgrains through the public distribution system devised to reach all the priority households (ration cardholders) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana.

Under the extended PMGKAY, each beneficiary will get additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to the normal quota of foodgrains under the NFSA. 

The government had allocated about 759 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of free foodgrains under PMGKAY till phase 5. With another 244 LMT of free foodgrains under phase 6, the aggregate allocation of free foodgrains under PMGKAY now stands at 1,003 LMT of foodgrains, the release said.

"The benefit of free ration can be availed through portability by any migrant labour or beneficiary under One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan from nearly 5 lakh ration shops across the country. So far, over 61 crore portability transactions have benefited the beneficiaries away from their homes," it added.

In a tweet in Hindi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the scheme has been extended by six months and more than 80 crore people of the country will be able to take advantage of it.

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— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 26, 2022

The scheme will cover nearly 80 crore beneficiaries across India and, like before, would be fully funded by the Union government.