The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan todayheld a media briefing through video conference to provide details of provision, preparedness and necessary steps taken by the ministry for providing additional food grains @ /month 5kg/person free of cost to all beneficiaries (AAY and PHH) covered under Targeted Public Distribution System as per provision of NFSA (including those covered under DBT).Shri Paswan also thanked Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for extending this scheme till November end, so that poor and needy persons will not go hungry and get free ration during the rainy and forthcoming festival seasonsat the time of current Covid-19 pandemic.Shri Paswan informed the media that the second phase of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana which is starting from today i.e. 01 July, 2020will be effective till November 2020. During this period, a total of 200 LMT grains will be distributed among 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries free of cost, as well as a total of 9.78 LMT gram will also be distributed among about 20 crore families. He informed that if both the schemes PMGKAY-1 and PMGKAY-2 are combined, the total expenditure will be around 1.5 lakh crore.
While briefing the press, Shri Paswan said that under this scheme, more than 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries of the country will continue to getadditional food grains @5kg/person/month and 1kg of gram to each family in addition to their monthly entitlement. In this regard, orders have been issued by the department for the State and UT governments on 30 June,2020 and all the State/UTs have been asked to start distribution of food grains with immediate effect for the next 5 months. He said presently an additional 10% extra food grains have been allocated to States/UTs and additional allocation of food grain will be provided as and when required by the States/UTs.