Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana: PMGKAY free ration scheme extended by 3 months

The Central government on Wednesday decided to continue the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for 3 more months. The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the free ration scheme till December in the meeting held today, 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 government has 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 told that about Rs 80,000 crore would be spent on continuing this scheme for 6 more months. Now that the government has decided to extend it for three more months, it is estimated that about Rs 40,000 crores more will be spent on it.

Under this scheme, the government provides free rations to the ration card holder's family. Through this scheme, the government has so far distributed 1,003 lakh metric tonnes of food grains. The scheme was launched in the year 2020 to provide free 5 kg foodgrains per person per month. About 80 crore beneficiaries are covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to reduce their hardship during the lockdown period.

The scheme has been extended multiple times since then and is now valid till December 2022.

Initially, in 2020-21, the PMGKAY scheme was announced only for a period of three months -- April, May and June 2020 (Phase-I). Later, the government extended the scheme from July to November 2020 (Phase-II).