Govt extends PMGKAY for six more months

Later in the evening, the Prime Minister tweeted, “The strength of India lies in the power of every citizen of the country. To further strengthen this power, the government has decided to continue the PMGKAY for six more months till September 2022.”

Under the scheme, 5 kg of food grains (wheat, rice, coarse grain) is provided to each beneficiary each month free of cost. The beneficiaries are those covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.

About 80 crore beneficiaries are covered under the scheme and the quantity provided under the scheme is over and above their entitlements under the NFSA.

This will be the 6th phase of the PMGKAY. Phase-V of the scheme was to end in March 2022. The Centre had launched the PMGKAY in April 2020 during the first wave of Covid-19.

Describing the PMGKAY as the world’s “largest food security programme”, the ministry said, “The government has spent approximately Rs 2.60 lakh crore so far and another Rs 80,000 crore will be spent over the next 6 months till September 2022 taking the total expenditure under PM-GKAY to nearly Rs 3.40 lakh crore.”

“This will cover nearly 80 crore beneficiaries across India and like before would be fully funded by the Government of India,” the ministry said.

Giving the reasons for extending the scheme, it said, “Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly abated and economic activities are gathering momentum, this PM-GKAY extension would ensure that no poor household goes to bed without food during this time of recovery.”

“Under the extended PM-GKAY each beneficiary will get additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to his normal quota of foodgrains under the NFSA. This means that every poor household would get nearly double the normal quantity of ration,” it said.

According to the ministry, the government had allocated about 759 LMT of free food grains under the PMGKAY till Phase 5.

“With another 244 LMT of free foodgrains under this extension (Phase 6), the aggregate allocation of free food grains under the PM-GKAY now stand at 1,003 LMT of food grains,” the ministry said.