Coronavirus lockdown: 30 crore poor get Rs 28,256 crore under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

More than 30 crore poor people have received Rs 28,256 crore financial assistance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month to protect them from the impact of 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

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As part of Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package, the government announced free foodgrains and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens and farmers to mitigate hardship faced due to the lockdown.

"More than 30 cr beneficiaries have been directly given support through Direct Benefit Transfer amounting to Rs 28,256 cr under #PradhanMantriGribKalyanPackage," a tweet from the Finance Ministry said.

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Of the total disbursement, Rs 13,855 crore have gone towards payment of first installment of PM-KISAN. Under the scheme, nearly 6.93 crore out of 8 crore identified beneficiaries got Rs 2,000 directly in their account.

As many as 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders received Rs 500 each in their account. The total disbursement under the head was 9,930 crore, it said.

The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) disbursed about Rs 1400 crore to about 2.82 crore old age person, widow and disabled person, the ministry added.

Each beneficiary received an ex-gratia cash of Rs 1,000 under the scheme.

As many as 2.16 crore construction workers received financial support from the Building and Construction Worlers' Fund managed by state governments. Under this Rs 3,066 crore were given to beneficiaries.

The government, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, is in the process of releasing 12 million MT of food grain during April-June.

"It will provide for 80 crore people @5 kg per head per month at no cost. Free rations have already reached 2 cr beneficiaries," the ministry said in another tweet.

The package included free LPG refills for the next three months to over 8.3 crore poor women under Ujjawala scheme and Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for healthcare workers.