PM extends food aid till November

Modi announces free ration for 800mn people for 5 more months, warns of negligence in following health safety rules

NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced the extension of the provision of free rations to 800 million people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for five more months, until November, at an additional cost of ₹90,000 crore. Modi also reiterated the government’s commitment to institute the “one nationone ration card” system to enable migrants to access the public distribution system (PDS) anywhere in the country, asking state governments to take the proposal forward.

In an address to the nation, PM Modi also spoke about the need to maintain all precautions against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) — social distancing, wearing of masks and regular handwashing — and pointed out that there has been an increase in “negligence” after Unlock 1.0 saw the country opening up in the past month.

While claiming that the announcement was a result of pressure from Congress president Sonia Gandhi — who had urged the government to extend the scheme — the Congress criticised the PM’s speech for not addressing the situation at the India-China border, and for failing to come up with more specific announcements on economic revival and employment creation. The announcement also took a political turn, as the Opposition accused the PM of being motivated by Bihar elections, due at the end of the year, and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announcing the provision of free ration in her state up to June 2021 — elections are due in West Bengal in the middle of next year.

The PM’s focus in the speech remained on Covid-19 and the extension of the welfare scheme.

“Under the lockdown, our national priority was to ensure that no one who was poor went hungry. The Centre, state governments and civil society worked hard to ensure no one was hungry,” Modi said.

In this backdrop, he mentioned the PMGKAY — the ₹1.7 lakh crore government package announced at the end of March right after the lockdown for three months — and how it had benefited 800 million people. “In a way,

over two-and-a-half times the population of the United States, 12 times the population of the United Kingdom, and double the population of the European Union was given free ration by our government.” Suggesting that in the monsoon season, barring agriculture, there is a dip in activities, and the period also sees a range of festivals with increased needs and expenses, the PM announced the extension of the PMGKAY up to Diwali and Chhath Puja till the end of November.

“This scheme, giving free ration to 800 million people, will continue in July, August, September, October, November. Every member of the family will get five kg wheat or rice. Every family will also get one kg of whole chana (gram) per month, free of cost.”

The total expenditure on the scheme — for the past three months and the next five months — is ₹1.5 lakh crore. The PM also thanked farmers and taxpayers in particular for their contribution, which had made the scheme possible.

While thanking the PM for the ”pro-poor scheme“, Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said, “There are a few states, however, that are yet to distribute the grains. So, we urge them to distribute it and are issuing a fresh circular.”

The Opposition, however, critiqued the PM. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who had, before the PM’s speech asked him to address how India would evict Chinese troops from Ladakh and demanded an income transfer scheme for the poor, tweeted a couplet after the speech. This was widely interpreted as critique of the PM’s silence on the border stand-off with China in his address to the nation.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed that the speech indicated that the PM expected the impact of Covid-19 to last till November, and that his various references to Chhath Puja and Bihar made it crystal clear he had “only state elections” on his mind. In West Bengal, CM Banerjee said that her government would give free grains till June 2021, and the quality of rice being provided to the poor was better than the one being given by the Centre.

Welcoming the decision, Yamini Aiyar, president and chief executive of the Centre for Policy

Research, said, “For the last three months, India’s much maligned PDS system has been the lifeline for most Indians. The extension of the PDS based entitlements to the end of November is a welcome move. The economic shock caused by the lockdown has hit India’s vulnerable and poor the most. The worst is still not behind us. Ensuring basic protections for them through the PDS is thus important.”

She, however, also offered a note of caution. “However, two things still remain. The first is the urgency of universalisation of PDS (ensuring smooth access to the PDS for all migrant workers and those without relevant cards), and second, resolving some of the complex federal issues associated with the ‘one nation one ration card’. If we want to genuinely build robust social security for India, the government must turn its attention to these issues fast.”

The other major theme of the PM’s speech was a message to citizens to remain careful in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PM said that India, compared to other countries, had a low fatality rate, and a “timely lockdown” had saved hundreds of thousands of lives. “But we have also seen that since Unlock 1.0, there is increasing negligence in personal and social behaviour. Earlier, we were very careful with respect to wearing of masks, social distancing and washing of hands for 20 seconds. But today, when we need to be more careful, increasing negligence is a cause of worry.”

He said there was a need to remain alert and follow rules, like during the lockdown; emphasised this was particularly true for containment zones; and said that those who were not following rules needed to be stopped and cautioned. He cited the example of a leader of a country being fined for not wearing a mask — in what appeared to be a reference to Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro — and said that in India, local authorities must exhibit the same “enthusiasm”. “Be it a village pradhan or the Prime Minister, no one is above the law in India.