Meghalaya is among the five states in the North East region that have lifted the full allocation of rice under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) for the months of May and June this year.
According to official sources, out of the seven North East states, only five states – Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have lifted the full allocation of May-June 2021. In Manipur and Assam, lifting of free food grains is in full swing and likely to be completed shortly.
It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday in his address to the nation has informed about extension of distribution of free food grains including rice under PMGKAY till Deepawali in October.
This means that till November, beneficiaries will continue to get a decided amount of free food grain every month.
The purpose of PMGKAY is to ameliorate the hardship faced by the poor due to economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, free food grains at 5 kg per person per month is being distributed to the beneficiaries covered under NFSA.
The Government of India will bear the entire cost on account of such distribution including food subsidy, intra-state transportation and dealer’s margin/additional dealer’s margin, without any sharing by states or Union Territories.
The Centre has sensitised all the states and Union Territories to complete the distribution of free food grains under PMGKAY in a time bound manner.
