On November 24, 2021, central government has extended “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for four months.

Highlights

• Terming it as a pro-people move, PMGKAY was extended from December 2021 till March 2022 as a part of Phase 5 of this scheme.
• This scheme was launched in 2020 in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic.
• Under this scheme, five kg grain are provided to per 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).

Different phases of the scheme

Phase 1 of the scheme was operation during April 2020 to June 2020, phase 2 between July to November 2020, Phase 3 from May to June 2021 on while Phase 4 is in operation from July-November 2021.

Phase 5 of the scheme

Phase 5 of the PMGKAY scheme will start from December 2021 and end in March 2022. This phase will entail an estimated additional food subsidy of Rs 53,344.52 crore. Total outgo of food-grains is likely to be around 163 LMT.

About PMGKAY

PMGKAY was launched by government in March 2020, amid the outbreak of Covid-19. Under this scheme, 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, 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.