The central government extended “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for four months from December 2021 till March 2022.
Context
The central government extended “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for four months from December 2021 till March 2022.
Key-highlights
- Terming it as a pro-people move, PMGKAY was extended as a part of Phase 5 of this scheme.
- Under this scheme, five kg grains are provided to each person per month free of cost.
- It covers all the beneficiaries, who are covered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and National Food Security Act (NFSA) (Antyodaya Anna Yojana & Priority Households).
About PMGKAY
- PMGKAY was launched by the government in March 2020, amid the outbreak of Covid-19.
- Its nodal Ministry is the Ministry of Finance.
- It was initially announced for a three month period (April, May and June 2020), covering 80 crore ration cardholders. Later it was extended till November 2020.
- 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.
- Under this scheme, the government started distribution of additional free-of-cost food-grains (rice/wheat) to around 80 crore beneficiaries of NFSA at the scale of 5 kgs per person per month.
- So far, the department has allocated about 600 LMT food-grains to the states/UTs, which is equivalent to around Rs 2.07 lakh crores in food subsidy.
