Additional free food-grains to be supplied to 80 cr beneficiaries

New Delhi, Apr 25: To ameliorate the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the Central; Government has decided to allocate free-of-cost food grains @ 5 Kg per person per month to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries covered under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) over and above NFSA food-grains for next two months i.e. May and June 2021 on the same pattern as the earlier “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)” .

Under this special scheme (PMGKAY), around 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries covered under both categories of NFSA, namely Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Householders (PHH), will be provided with an additional quota of free-of-cost food-grains (Rice/Wheat) at a scale of 5 Kg per person per month, over and above their regular monthly entitlements under NFSA, an official release said.

Government of India will bear all expenditure of over Rs 26,000 crore on account of food subsidy and Central assistance to states/UTs on account of intrastate transportation etc., the release added.