PMGKAY extended till March 2022

Context

The central government extended “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for four months from December 2021 till March 2022.

Key-highlights

• Terming it as a pro-people move, PMGKAY was extended as a part of Phase 5 of this scheme.
• Under this scheme, five kg grains are provided to each 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).

About PMGKAY

• PMGKAY was launched by the government in March 2020, amid the outbreak of Covid-19. 
• Its nodal Ministry is the Ministry of Finance.
• It was initially announced for a three month period (April, May and June 2020), covering 80 crore ration cardholders. Later it was extended till November 2020.
• Phase-I and Phase-II of this scheme was operational from April to June, 2020 and July to November, 2020 respectively.
• Phase-III of the scheme was operational from May to June, 2021.
• Phase-IV of the scheme is currently operational for July-November, 2021 months.
• Under this scheme, the 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, the 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.