420 mn got cash benefits worth ₹68,820 cr under PMGKY: Finmin
NEW DELHI: The Union government has so far provided cash assistance of ₹68,820 crore to 420 million poor since it announced the ₹1.7 lakh crore Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) on March 26, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
The package, which is around 0.8% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), aims to ease economic distress especially for the underprivileged and promises food and cash security to the poor. Besides direct financial assistance, PMGKY also includes free distribution of wheat, rice, pulses and cooking gas cylinders.
The statement said the government has front-loaded payment of ₹17,891 crore as the first instalment of PM-KISAN to 89.4 million beneficiaries. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KiSAN) scheme is an old scheme launched on December 1, 2018 that provides cash support of ₹6,000 per year to all farmer families across the country in three equal instalments. While launching the ₹1.7 lakh crore package on March 26, Sitharaman had said that the ₹2,000 instalment of PM-KISAN would be “front-loaded” and given immediately.
The statement said ₹10,325 crore has been already credited to 206.5 million women account holders under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) as the first instalment. PMJDY accounts were credited with ₹10,315 crore and ₹10,312 crore in the second and the third instalments, respectively. In order to help poor women in this difficult time when livelihoods of most of them are disrupted, Sitharaman had announced them an ex-gratia of ₹500 per month for three months starting from April.
About 18.2 million building and construction workers have received financial support amounting to ₹4,987.18 crore, the statement said.
Besides cash transfer, the government has already distributed food grains to millions of poor, it said.