PRADHAN MANTRI GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA (PM-GKAY)

The Prime Minister has announced that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) will be extended for an additional five years until December 2028.

Launched: April 2020

Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Finance.

Operated by: Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

About the Scheme:

1. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) is a scheme as part of Aatm-nirbhar Bharat to supply free food grains to migrants and poor.
2. It was announced as part of the first relief package during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose:

1. Under this scheme, the centre provides 5kg of free food grains per person per month to the poor.
2. This is in addition to the subsidized (Rs 2-3 per kg) ration provided under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to families covered under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
3. The food grain and the amount may be variable.

Eligibility:

1. Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line - Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
2. PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them. AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
3. Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
4. Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
5. All primitive tribal households.
6. Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
7. All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons.

Documents Required:

1. Ration Card
2. Aadhar Card (if seeded with Ration Card)

Benefits:

1. More than 81.35 crore people will be provided 5 kg free wheat/rice per person/month along with 1 kg free whole chana to each family per month.
2. Wheat has been allocated to 6 States/UTs, - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi and Gujarat and rice has been provided to the remaining States/UTs.
3. This is over and above the regular monthly entitlements under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA).

Merger of PMGKAY and NFSA:

1. The government approved the integration of PM-GKAY benefits with the provisions of the NFSA Act in January 2023.
2. The integration aims to streamline the delivery of free food grains.
3. It also ensures that families falling under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority households (PHH) categories receive free food grains as per their entitlement under NFSA.

About National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013: An Act to provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.

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