Now the government will give free food grains to the poor till March, 8.71 crore people will benefit

Bihar : The poor of Bihar will get free food grains till March. About 17 lakh tonnes of food grains will again be given to them free of cost. The cost of these grains will be Rs 51 billion. The Central Government has expanded the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for the second time. Now this scheme will run till 31st March. Earlier this scheme, which started in the Corona period, was expanded till the Mahaparv Chhath. So this month its period was expiring.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, five kg of food grains are given free of cost to every member of every poor family. Therefore, 4.35 lakh tonnes of food grains are distributed free of cost every month in the state. This includes 2.57 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.74 lakh tonnes of wheat. The number of beneficiaries is 8.71 crores.

The special thing is that this free grain is different from the ration available every month according to the quota from PDS shops. Accordingly, in the next four months, FCI will have to arrange about 17 lakh tonnes of additional food grains. The organization has started work on it with the announcement of the PM.

The government had made this arrangement only in the Corona wave of last year. The scheme which started in April 2020 lasted till November. After that the second wave started, then in May 21, the scheme was started again. This too was to run till November but the government extended it till March 22. So far, about 66 lakh tonnes of food grains have been distributed under this scheme. In this 39 lakh tonnes of rice and 26 lakh tonnes of wheat have been distributed. Adding to the average support price, the government has so far distributed food grains worth Rs 195 billion free of cost during the Korana period.

Bihar allocation increased

After the expansion, the Center has increased the allocation of the state government. According to the number of beneficiaries of the districts, the distribution has to be done by the state government. Earlier, the central government used to give food grains only for 8.57 crore beneficiaries. By adding the beneficiaries left out last year, the Center has given approval to provide food grains to 8.71 crore beneficiaries.

Scheme cost at a glance

195 billion grains distributed

39 lakh tonnes of rice distributed

26 lakh tonnes of wheat distributed

Number of Beneficiaries: 8.71 Crore