Hyderabad: The state government has decided to withdraw its quota of 5-kg free rice, which it was extending to ration card holders under the Centre’s ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)’ from this month. However, it will continue to extend the Centre’s quota of 5-kg free rice to beneficiaries as usual.
The civil supplies department on Tuesday issued a circular in this regard.
PMGKAY is a welfare scheme announced by the Centre in March 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme envisages the supply of 5 kg free rice from the Centre to ration card holders.
However, the Telangana State government on its own decided to contribute an additional 5 kg to this scheme and has been supplying 10 kg free rice to beneficiaries since July 2020.
PMGKAY has been exten-ded five times since March 2020. On November 24, the Union Cabinet decided to extend the scheme for four more months from Decem-ber 2021 to March 2022.
According to official sources in the civil supplies department, the state government contributed 5 kg additional free rice on its own to PMGKAY with a view to help the poor and needy during Covid lockdowns and other restrictions in 2020 and 2021.
Since there is no lockdown in Telangana after June this year, the government felt that there was no need to give 5 kg of free rice.
Moreover, the state government would supply ration rice to beneficiaries for just Rs 1 per kg every month at the rate of 6 kg per head without any upper limit on family members. For instance, a family of ten members can claim 60 kg of rice per month for just Rs 60.
