More than 30 crore poor people have received financial assistance of ₹28,256 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month to protect them from the impact of the lockdown.
As part of the ₹1.70 lakh crore relief package, the government announced free foodgrains and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens and farmers.
“More than 30 cr. beneficiaries have been directly given support through Direct Benefit Transfer amounting to ₹28,256 cr. under #PradhanMantriGribKalyanPackage,” a tweet from the Finance Ministry said. Of the total disbursement, ₹13,855 crore has gone towards payment of the first instalment of PM-KISAN. Under the scheme, nearly 6.93 crore out of the 8 crore identified beneficiaries got ₹2,000 directly in their account. As many as 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders received ₹500 each in their account. The total disbursement under the head was ₹9,930 crore, it said.
The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) disbursed about ₹1,400 crore to about 2.82 crore old age persons, widows and disabled persons, it added.
Each beneficiary received an ex-gratia cash of Rs 1,000 under the scheme.
As many as 2.16 crore construction workers received financial support from the Building and Construction Worlers’ Fund managed by state governments. Under this Rs 3,066 crore were given to beneficiaries.
The government, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, is in the process of releasing 12 million MT of food grain during April-June.
“It will provide for 80 crore people @5 kg per head per month at no cost. Free rations have already reached 2 cr beneficiaries,” the ministry said in another tweet.
The package included free LPG refills for the next three months to over 8.3 crore poor women under Ujjawala scheme and Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for healthcare workers.
