Centre resumes free food grains for poor scheme as Covid-19 rages

The Centre on Friday announced it would provide free wheat and rice to the poor for May and June as they battle the vagaries brought on by the second wave of the Covid-19.

Nearly 80 crore beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act will be given five kilograms of food grains per person per month under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY).

The PMGKAY was introduced last year for three months after the government announced a lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme was later extended till November.

The free food grains will be over and above the monthly entitlement under the NFSA.

About 80 lakh tonne of food grains will be required to meet the demand for two months.

The initiative will cost the exchequer over Rs 26,000 crore, including the expenditure involved in interstate transportation of food grains.

Governments of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Kerala had demanded re-introduction of the PMGKAY scheme as the second wave of Covid-19 assumed gigantic proportions.

Under the PMGKAY last year, over 200 lakh tonne of free food grains were provided amounting to a fiscal outgo of over Rs 75,000 crore, covering 80.96 crore NFSA beneficiaries.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Ray, CPI MP Binoy Viswam, and CPI-M MP Elamaram Kareem had also asked the Centre to re-start the PMGKAY scheme.