The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) for another six months i.e. till September 2022 (Phase VI).
It is worth mentioning here that the Phase-V of PM-GKAY was to end in March 2022.
The Chief Minister said the PM-GKAY has been under implementation since April 2020 as the largest food security program in the world to provide relief to the people of the country amidst the Covid pandemic.
the Union government has spent approximately Rs 2.60 lakh crore so far and another Rs 80,000 crore would be spent over the next 6 months till September 2022 taking the total expenditure under PM-GKAY to nearly Rs 3.40 lakh crore.
The scheme would cover nearly 80 crore beneficiaries across India and like before, it would be fully funded by the Government of India, Jai Ram said, adding that people of the state would also be immensely benefited under this scheme.
The Chief Minister said that under the extended PM-GKAY each beneficiary would get an additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to his normal quota of food grains under the NFSA. This means that every poor household would get nearly double the normal quantity of ration, he added.