New Delhi: On Sunday, the first day of the New Year 2023, the updated food security programme mandated by the National Food Security Act will go into operation, providing 5 kg of free food grain to 81.3 crore people nationally. General managers of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have been directed by the government to ‘assess and report’ by visiting three ration outlets each day for the first week. They are required to submit reports every day.
The cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accepted the proposal to make the NFSA foodgrain entitlement for the underprivileged free for the whole year 2023. With this move, the government also ended the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna, which was launched in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020.
The food ministry reports that on Friday, Sanjeev Chopra, the union’s food secretary, met with each state’s food secretary to go over the distribution of free foodgrains and any technological issues. The government has also provided guidance to states and UTs on how to compensate dealers’ margins (of ration shop owners) for supplying food to beneficiaries.
When an estimated 60 million migrant workers returned to their home states after the epidemic, the PMGKAY became more well-liked. It began in 2020 and continued for 28 months, often being extended, although being stopped for six months. A cabinet paper estimates that PMGKAY will cost $3.91 lakh crore total from the time of its inception till December 2022.
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