Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in Gujarat. The meeting started around 12:30 PM and was held online owing to the Covid situation in country.
Ahead of the meeting, Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter on Monday and said, "At 12:30 PM tomorrow, 3rd August, will interact with beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Gujarat. It would be wonderful to hear their views and experiences."
During the meeting held via video conferencing, Mr Modi stated that the government is dedicated to helping the country's poor people in every way possible. He also expressed his gratitude to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana beneficiaries, saying that the distribution of free food grains has aided the underprivileged in their day-to-day lives.
He interacted with beneficiaries of five states via video conferencing.
Gujarat has launched a public participation initiative to raise awareness about the Centre's programme. Vijay Rupani, Gujarat's Chief Minister and Nitinbhai Patel, Gujarat's Deputy Chief Minister were also present at the meet.
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What is PMGKAY?
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is a food security welfare plan launched to give aid to poor people and help improve the economic effect of COVID-19.
The scheme is run by the Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution's department of food and public distribution.
The PMGKAY's major goal is to supply food grains through the public distribution system to the poorest people. The Centre introduced this welfare scheme in March of last year. Every month, all recipients insured by the National Food Security Act get five kilos of rice or wheat and one kg of pulses as part of PMGKAY.
“Under PMGKAY, over 278 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) foodgrains have been given free of cost to nearly 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries for the year 2021 for a period of seven months, from May to November 2021,” said minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on July 27.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme, the UN's food aid division, lauded PMGKAY in June as a significant step forward in combating hunger by any developing country during the current crisis.