Ration...

“Farmers and workers are the backbone of this nation. They serve all of us with their sweat and toil,” she said.

The finance minister said free food grains will be supplied to migrant families in May and June this year and the scheme will cover all those who are not covered under the National Food Security Act or who do not have a ration card in the state where they are stranded. “8 lakh MT of food grain and 50,000 MT of chana shall be allocated,” she said.

Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan told HT the Centre won’t insist on any upfront documentation for free grains to migrants. States may send details of utilisation later. Grains will be distributed from Friday, he said, adding that trains were ready for the purpose.

Manobi Sinha, a labour economist with the Allahabad University, said: “The government has finally heeded the call of so many concerned people by assuring free food to migrants. I think as a one-time exception, this should be done without demand of any documentation, including Aadhaar.”

In order to have a robust food security system, the government will use technology-enabled ration card system -- One Nation One Ration Card -- so that all beneficiaries can access ration under the public distribution system from anywhere in the country by March 2021. The pilot scheme for this will cover 670 million people by August.

The government has also decided to launch an affordable rental housing scheme for migrant workers and urban poor, Sitharaman said. “This will be done through converting government funded houses in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP [public-private-partnership] mode through concessionaire, manufacturing units, industries, institutions, associations,” she said. The concessionaires can use their private land for the purpose. The Centre and states can also use public land for ARHC. The administrative ministry will soon announce details of the scheme, she added.

A Credit Suisse equity research report of May 13 estimated that part one of the economic package worth Rs 13 lakh crore has already been done by Wednesday and Rs 7 lakh crore was yet to come.

A finance ministry spokesperson, however, declined comment on the numbers.

To provide relief to micro enterprises that can avail loans up to Rs 50,000 under the MUDRA Shishu scheme, the Centre has decided to provide a 2% interest subvention for 12 months to the borrower, the finance minister said. Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) supports development of micro enterprises and provides refinance support to lending institutions.

The government also announced the plan to launch a special scheme next month to provide easy access to credit to street vendors in rural and urban areas. Under this scheme, bank credit facility for initial working capital up to Rs 10,000 will be extended to each. “Use of digital payments and timely repayments will be incentivised through monetary rewards,” minister of state for finance Anurag Singh Thakur, who also addressed the press