Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY): All you need to know

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana: The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the PMGKAY scheme till December in the meeting held on September 28. So far, the government has spent Rs 3.8 lakh crore on this scheme.

The Central authorities decided to proceed the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for three extra months.

The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the free ration scheme until December in the meeting held on, September 28. In the meeting, it was decided that the government will spend about Rs 40,000 crores on this scheme in the next three months. So far, the authorities have spent Rs 3.8 lakh crore on this scheme.

It is worth noting that no provision was made for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) after Covid-19. Despite this, after the budget, on March 26, 2022, the government had announced to continue it for another 6 months. At that time the government had advised that about Rs 80,000 crore would be spent on continuing this scheme for 6 months. Now that the authorities have decided to prolong it for three extra months, it is estimated that about Rs 40,000 crores extra will be spent on it.

Under this scheme, the authorities provide free rations to the ration card holder’s family. Through this scheme, the government has so far distributed 1,003 lakh metric tons of meals grains. The scheme was launched in the year 2020 to grant free 5 kg foodgrains per individual per month. About eighty crore beneficiaries are included underneath the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to minimize their trouble all through the lockdown period.

The scheme has been prolonged a couple of times considering then and is now valid until December 2022.
Initially, in 2020-21, the PMGKAY scheme was once introduced solely for a duration of three months — April, May and June 2020 (Phase-I). Later, the authorities prolonged the scheme from July to November 2020 (Phase-II).