The government has sufficient food grain stocks under the central pool to meet the requirement of the food security program, additional allocation from PMGKAY, and other welfare schemes.

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.

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], July 6 (ANI): Odisha has been ranked as the No. 1 performing state in the country by the Government of India, in their recently published 'State Ranking Index for NFSA' 2022-creating resilient food systems to optimize the delivery of benefits'.

New Delhi [India], June 21 (ANI): Assam has become the 36th State to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme. With this, the ONORC plan is successfully implemented in all 36 states, and Union Territories, making food security portable throughout the country.

New Delhi [India], April 11 (ANI): Amid the row of paddy procurement, the Centre on Monday said the procurement in Telangana under the central pool has increased tremendously over the last five to six years.

New Delhi [India], March 29 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MPs that the NDA government has taken measures to acknowledge the contributions of 14 former PMs.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 27 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath extended the free ration scheme in the state by three months till June 30, 2022 on Saturday.

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], March 27 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Sunday expressed his gratitude to 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): The Union Cabinet on Saturday extended the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) scheme for another six months - till September 2022 - with each beneficiary eligible to get an additional 5 kg free ration per month in addition to normal quota of foodgrains under the NFSA.

New Delhi Mar 26 PTI The Centre has extended the free foodgrain programme PMGKAY for six months till September this year to provide relief to poor Union minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday A decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Food Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that the government has extended the scheme till September 2022 The extension of the scheme despite the end of the COVID-19 pandemic shows the Modi governments sensitivity towards poor he tweeted Under the PMGKAY programme which is running for the past years the government will distribute 1003 lakh tonnes foodgrain at a cost of Rs 34 lakh crore to the exchequer In March 2020 the Centre had launched the scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana PMGKAY to provide free foodgrains to over 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act NFSA as part of its efforts to reduce the hardships of people during the coronavirus pandemic The Centre provides 5kg of foodgrains per month for free under this scheme The additional free grains is over and above the normal quota provided under the NFSA at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg The scheme has been extended several times with the recent one until March 2022 Initially in 2020-21 the PMGKAY scheme was announced only for a period of three months of April May and June 2020 Phase-I Later the government extended the scheme from July to November 2020 Phase-II With the COVID crisis continuing in 2021-22 the Centre in April 2021 had re-introduced the scheme for a period of two months of May and June 2021 Phase-III and extended it for another five months from July to November 2021 Phase-IV The scheme was again extended from December 2021 to March 2022 Phase-V Under the Phases I to V the food ministry had allocated a total of about759 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to the StatesUTs which is equivalent to aboutRs 26 lakh crorein food subsidy PTI MJH MR MR