Free food grains for the poor extended till November ... Prime Minister approves the Union Cabinet

The Prime Minister has approved the Union Cabinet to allocate additional food grains for the next 5 months to the beneficiaries of the National Food Security Scheme under the Prime Minister's Poor Welfare Scheme.

The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi was held in Delhi today. The meeting discussed corona status, immunization missions and key issues.

Prime Minister Modi had announced that the scheme of providing free food items to benefit 80 crore people would be extended till Diwali. Accordingly, the Union Cabinet has approved to extend the scheme of providing 5 kg of free cereals per month to the beneficiaries of the National Food Security Scheme till November.

Accordingly, from July to November 2021, 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Program (Priority Sections including those under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Direct Money Transfer Scheme) will be provided 5 kg of foodgrains per family per month free of cost.

The value of the food subsidy.

The entire cost of the project is borne by the Central Government without the contribution of the State Governments and the Union Territories. The transport and handling of these food grains would cost the Central Government an additional Rs 3,234.85 crore as the dealer cost of the fair price shops and the total cost to the Central Government would be Rs. 67,266.44 crore.

The Department of Food and Public Distribution will decide whether the food grains to be supplemented are rice or wheat. The Department of Food and Public Distribution will also decide on extending the period for transporting / distributing food grains under Phases 3 and 4 of the Prime Minister's Poor Benefit Food Scheme, depending on monsoon and snowfall controls.

The total volume of supplementary food grains will be 204 lakh MT. An additional allocation of food grains would alleviate the hardships faced by the poor due to the economic crisis caused by the corona. The federal government has said that in the next 5 years, no poor family will suffer without access to food grains due to this disruption.