Under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), foodgrains to additional 7.4 lakh people in Bihar have been allocated for free of cost, said Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Food Minister on Thursday, April 23.
As much as 5 kg of foodgrains per person for three months at no cost is being provided under the Centre’s PMGKAY scheme. The free distribution is additional to what people get under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) under which 5 kg per person per month foodgrains are distributed at Rs 2-3 per kg. The distribution of foodgrains covers over 80 crore people across the country.
According to a tweet by Paswan, of the 8.71 crore people who are eligible to be the beneficiaries of NFSA only 8.57 crore have been listed under the scheme so far.
Paswan said that the State Government of Bihar has been already informed about the difference of 14 lakh people. However, an additional beneficiary list of 7.4 lakh people has been given by the Bihar Government and requested to allot free foodgrains under the PMGKAY scheme. To this Paswan said that he immediately sanctioned allotment of foodgrains for these 7.4 lakh people and further urged the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to include the 14 lakh people who still do not feature in the beneficiary list of the NFSA, so that they can get the subsidised foodgrains.
