No poor will sleep hungry” – The Prime Minister
Beneficiaries getting almost double the earlier amount of ration after Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana started: PM
More than 80 crore people getting free ration during the pandemic with an expenditure of more than 2 lakh crore rupees: PM
No citizen went hungry despite the biggest calamity of the century: PM
Empowerment of the poor is being given top priority today: PM
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi interacted with beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Gujarat today via video conferencing. A public participation programme was launched in the state to create further awareness about the scheme.
Addressing the event, the Prime Minister said that lakhs of families in Gujarat are getting free ration under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. This free rations reduces distress for the poor and gives them confidence. He said that the poor should feel that whatever might be the calamity, the country is with him.
The Prime Minister pointed out that after independence, almost every government talked about providing cheap food to the poor. The scope and budget of cheap ration schemes increased year after year, but the effect it should have had remained limited. The country’s food stocks kept increasing, but starvation and malnutrition did not decrease in that proportion. One major reason for this was the lack of an effective delivery system. To change this situation work was started afresh after 2014. He said, using new technology, crores of fake beneficiaries were weeded out of the system and ration cards were linked to Aadhar cards. This helped in ensuring that no citizen went hungry despite the biggest calamity of the century when livelihood were threatened and business suffered due to lockdown. The world has acknowledged the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Free ration has been made available to more than 80 crore people during the pandemic with an expenditure of more than 2 lakh crore rupees, said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister said today, in addition to the quota of wheat at Rs 2/kg, rice at Rs 3/kg, 5 kg of wheat and rice is being given free to every beneficiary. That is, almost double the amount of ration is being provided to the ration card holders than before this scheme started. This scheme is going to continue till Diwali. No poor will sleep hungry, said the Prime Minister. He praised the Gujarat government for taking care of the migrant labourers, fulfilling the purpose of One Nation One Ration Card Initiative.
The Prime Minister said today the country is spending lakhs of crores on infrastructure, but at the same time, to improve the quality of life of common human beings, it is also setting new benchmarks for Ease of Living. Empowerment of the poor is being given top priority today. They are being empowered as more than 2 crore poor families got houses, 10 crore families got toilets. Similarly, they get empowered when they get included in the banking system via Jan-Dhan account, said the Prime Minister.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna: At a Glance
To ameliorate the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruptions caused by the pandemic, the Central Government through Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) almost doubled the quantity of monthly foodgrains being distributed normally to around 80 Crore beneficiaries in the country covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA) by providing them an additional quantity of 5 Kg foodgrains per person per month, free-of-cost, over and above the normal NFSA entitlement of their Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)/ Priority Householders (PHH) ration cards (i.e., 35 Kg per AAY family and 5 Kg per PHH person per month respectively).
Initially, this additional free benefit under PMGKAY was provided for a period of three months (i.e., April to June 2020). However, with the crisis continuing, the program was extended for another five months (i.e., July to November 2020). After the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, PM-GKAY was once again rolled-out for a period of two months (i.e., May and June 2021) and was further extended for a period of five months (i.e. July to November 2021).
In year 2020, for a period of 8 months i.e., from April 2020 to November 2020, under PM-GKAY, Gujarat was allocated 13.6 Lakh MT foodgrains by Central Government for free of cost distribution to around 72 Lakh NFSA beneficiaries @ 5 Kg per person per month. Similarly, an allocation of 11.96 lakh MT of PM-GKAY food grain has been provisioned for the State of Gujarat for 7 months period in 2021 i.e., from May 2021 to November 2021. Under PM-GKAY 2020 (April to November 2020) on an average, 94% of foodgrains was distributed in Gujarat and under PM-GKAY 2021 (i.e., from May to November 2021), so far, an average of around 95.5% of foodgrains has been distributed in the State of Gujarat from May 2021 till July 2021.
The State of Gujarat has established a technologically robust Public Distribution System with an automated supply chain management & Aadhaar seeding of around 99.5% of the NFSA ration cards in the state. The distribution of foodgrains in the State is done with maximum transparency, with an average of 91 % of e-PoS/device transactions being Aadhaar based biometric authentication done through a network of more than 17,000 e-PoS/device enabled Fair Price Shops.
Gujarat is also one of the first States to launch the ambitious ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONORC) Plan that is also an integral part of the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Technology Driven System Reforms under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. ONORC plan is currently enabled in 33 States/UTs and is serving as a gamechanger by allowing the NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, to access the NFSA entitlements from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country. At present, around 42,000 monthly portability transactions (including intra-state transactions) are being consistently recorded under ONORC plan in Gujarat. Since inception, around 8.2 Lakh ONORC transactions has been observed in Gujarat.
