Three more months of free foodgrains for poor
Source: By Harikishan Sharma: The Indian Express
The government on 28 September 2022 announced an extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) for another three months until December 2022. The decision was taken in the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur told reporters that the Cabinet had approved the seventh phase of PM-GKAY for three months (October-December 2022).
Thakur said that a total of Rs 3.45 lakh crore had been spent on the six phases of PM-GKAY so far, and another Rs 44,762 crore will be spent on the seventh phase. A total 122 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains will be distributed to over 80 crore beneficiaries across the country, he said.
What is the PM-GKAY?
The PM-GKAY is a scheme under which the government provides free foodgrains — 5 kg per person per month — to eligible beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. This is over and above their monthly entitlement under the NFSA.
The scheme was started as one of the components of the government’s Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid relief package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 26 March 2020 — two days after the country went into national lockdown following the outbreak.
How did the scheme keep getting extended?
Initially, the scheme was only for three months — April to June 2020. However, on 8 July 2020, it was extended for another five months from July to November 2020. After the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 hit the country in March-April 2021, the government restarted the PM-GKAY. The third phase of the scheme was approved for two months — May and June 2021.
Subsequently, the government extended the scheme for another five months — from July to November 2021. This fourth phase of PM-GKAY was supposed to end in November in view of the ebbing of the second wave of Covid-19, but on 24 November 2021, the government decided to continue it till the end of March 2022. The decision to extend the scheme into a fifth phase was widely seen as a response to the Assembly elections in key states such as Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
After the elections ended, however, the government announced another extension — on 26 March 2022, the Union Cabinet chaired by Modi approved the sixth phase of PM-GKAY, until September.
How much grain has been disbursed so far?
In the six phases of the scheme from its inception in early 2020 up to July 2022, the government has allocated 998 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of foodgrains — including 635.1 LMT of rice and 362.86 LMT of wheat — of which 826 LMT has been lifted by states and Union Territories.
It is estimated that the government has spent around Rs 3.4 lakh crore on the implementation of all six phases of the PM-GKAY.
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, an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting of 26 March 2022 said.
What are NFSA beneficiaries entitled to?
There are two categories of beneficiary households under the NFSA — the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, and the Priority Households (PHs). Each AAY household is entitled to 35 kg of foodgrains every month irrespective of the number of members in the household. PHs are entitled to receive foodgrains according to the number of family members. Each member of a PH is entitled to receive 5 kg of foodgrains every month under the NFSA. So, the bigger a PH family, the greater is the quantity of foodgrains it gets.
At what rate are foodgrains provided under the NFSA?
NFSA beneficiaries are entitled to receive foodgrains at highly subsidised rates. Under the food law, rice is provided at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg, and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg.
How many persons are covered under the NFSA?
The NFSA, enacted by the UPA government in 2013, aims at ensuring “access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices” to 50 per cent of the urban and 75 per cent of the rural population of the country. The overall national coverage of the NFSA is about 67.5 per cent.
Section 9 of the NFSA states that the number of persons to be covered in rural and urban areas of a state shall be calculated on the basis of population estimates as per the Census of which the relevant figures have been published.
The latest published Census figures are from 2011, and based on that about 81.35 crore people can be covered by the NFSA. However, Food Ministry data show that of the accepted figure of 81.35 crore, 98.05 per cent, or 79.77 crore persons, had been identified until July 2022. Thus, even with the ceiling fixed at 81.35 crore, states can still identify and add about 1.58 crore people under the NFSA.
How is the PM-GKAY different from the NFSA?
The NFSA is a right-based scheme under a law of Parliament, while the PM-GKAY is a scheme announced by the executive as a top-up to the entitlements of beneficiaries covered under the NFSA.
So, only those people who were already getting subsidised food grains can get free food grains under the PM-GKAY. The PM-GKAY provides additional benefits to NFSA beneficiaries, but does not cover additional beneficiaries beyond the accepted limit of 81.35 crore persons under the NFSA.
