New Delhi. During a public meeting in Durg, Chhattisgarh on Saturday, PM Narendra Modi has announced to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana i.e. free grains to the poor from ration shops for another 5 years. This scheme is running till December this year. That means, the scheme of providing free grains from ration shops to 80 crore poor people of the country is going to continue for the next 5 years from January. This scheme was started by PM Modi to provide relief to the poor in distress during the Corona period. Since then, Modi’s government has been continuously carrying forward the scheme of providing free ration under this scheme. However, by giving free ration to 80 crore poor people of the country, a lot of money is being spent from the treasury. Do you know how much money the Modi government is spending every year on the free ration scheme?
Last year i.e. in the month of December 2022, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had told the media that the Modi government is spending Rs 200000 lakh crore every year in the scheme of providing free ration to the poor. Yes, two lakh crore rupees are being spent every year by the Modi government to feed the poor. Earlier, the poor were getting rice at the rate of Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg and coarse grains at the rate of Rs 1 per kg from the ration shops, but under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, the poor were given one rupee to buy wheat and rice from the ration shops. No money has to be paid. For this, they just have to go to the ration shop and provide biometric identification and the Kotdar gives them the ration for the month. Under the free ration scheme, 4 kg wheat and 1 kg rice per person is given to the poor every month.
Now, with the decision to extend this scheme for the next 5 years i.e. till 2028, it is estimated that at least Rs 10 lakh crore will be spent from the central government treasury. If inflation increases, this amount may also see some increase. However, you may be thinking that so much money will be spent on free ration, but we should also see how much relief this scheme of Modi has brought to the poor section of the country.