The government of India has sufficient food grain stocks under the central pool to meet the requirement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and its other welfare schemes as well as for additional allocation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), an official statement said.

According to a statement from the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, about 159 lakh million tonne (lmt) of wheat will be available as on January 1, 2023, which is well above the buffer norm requirement of 138 lmt of January 1. As on December 12 2022, around 182 lmt of wheat is available in the central pool.

New Delhi [India], September 28 (ANI): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a proposal to increase the dearness allowance (DA) of the central government employees and pensioners by 4 per cent.

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], September 20 (ANI): Kickstarting his two-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat, BJP national president JP Nadda on Tuesday flagged off the e-bikes for Namo Kisan Panchayat programme in Gandhinagar.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], March 27 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) for another six months.

New Delhi [India], March 26 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana for another six months till September 2022.

New Delhi Dec 30 PTI The Centre is in the final stages of developing a system to capture the data of homeless and the destitute having no ration cards so that the benefit of subsidized foodgrains can be extended to them also Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Thursday Currently the government supplies highly subsidized foodgrains at Rs 1-3 per kg to over 81 crore people having ration cards through public distribution system PDS as part of the National Food Security Act NFSA Over and above the subsidized foodgrains the government during the pandemic is supplying free foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana PMGKAY This scheme has been extended multiple times and is now valid till March 2022 Since homeless and the destitute have no ration cards in the absence of an identity card or residential address they are not covered either under NFSA or PMGKAY Asked about steps taken to cover this segment of the population the Secretary said Very much that process is on and the development of a system is in the final stages and then it will be put to trial The new system being developed is basically to capture all homeless shelterless destitute who might not have ration cards he said during a virtual media briefing State governments have not either issued them the ration card for reasons of lack of identity or lack of home address he said and added all these issues will get addressed Another Food Ministry official said states have lifted 1121 lakh tonne of foodgrains in the current 2021-22 fiscal year for distribution to people not covered under NFSA State governments purchased over 11 lakh tonne of foodgrains under the Centres open market sale scheme OMSS in 2021-22 he said Further the official said state governments have managed to cover so far only 7971 crore poor people out of the total 81 crore beneficiaries covered under NFSA State governments have been asked to immediately reach out to the remaining 16 crore identify them and bring them under the ambit of NFSA he said With states lifting grains via OMSS the quantity of wheat and rice sold via this scheme has increased to 7144 lakh tonne till December 29 this year as against 2071 lakh tonne in the year-ago period Besides states private companies and organizations have purchased the grains via OMSS taking advantage of the liberalized policy introduced this year to offload the surplus stocks of wheat improve domestic availability and ease out storage crunch he added PTI LUX ANU ANU

While ensuring transparency in the public distribution system, the Uttar Pradesh government has so far provided free ration to more than 82 percent of beneficiaries in the State for the month of December under its extended scheme. Uttar Pradesh Govt Provides Free Food Grains to Over 82% of Beneficiaries in December Under its Extended Scheme […]

New Delhi Dec 20 PTI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the Delhi government has decided to extend the distribution of free ration in the city for six months till May 31 2022 The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting on Monday We have started distributing free ration ever since the outbreak of coronavirus The time period of this scheme has ended so this is being extended by six months The Cabinet today decided that free ration distribution will continue till May 31 next year Kejriwal said in a virtual press conference The scheme ended on November 30 The Delhi government distributes free ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act NFSA 2013 and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana PMGKAY The city has over 2000 fair price shops 1777 lakh ration card holders and around 7278 lakh beneficiaries Free ration is given over and above subsidised grains distributed to them through ration shops The PMGKAY was launched in March last year to ameliorate distress caused by COVID-19 Initially the scheme was launched for April-June last year but was later extended to November 30 In November this year Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had said that the Centre had no proposal to extend distribution of free ration through the PMGKAY beyond November 30 Then too Kejriwal had said that the free ration distribution would be continued in Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party AAP government till May 31 2022 The Delhi chief minister had also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to extend the free ration distribution scheme to benefit the poor PTI AKM SMN SMN

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 9 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh government is set to begin its "Maha Abhiyan" of free ration distribution, other than the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), from December 12, Sunday.