Have given cash support to 42 cr poor people till June 2, says govt

Around 42 crore beneficiaries have been directly given cash support through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) amounting to Rs 53,248 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) till June 2, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Rs 1.7 trillion PMGKP package was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 to protect weaker and most vulnerable sections of the society from the impact of the lockdown due to Covid-19.

Under the package, the government announced free food grains and cash payments to women and poor senior citizens and farmers. Its implementation is being monitored by Central and state governments, said the ministry in a statement.

So far, the government has transferred Rs 8,488 crore into the bank accounts of PM Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries. Also, 8.58 crore free Ujjwala cylinders have been delivered while a total of 9.25 crore cylinders have been booked. Under the package, the government has decided to distribute free cooking gas cylinders to Ujjwala beneficiaries for three months till June 30.

The Finance Ministry statement said that as of June 2, the government has also released an amount of Rs 895 crore for the benefit of 59.23 lakh EPFO account holder employees where the government has decided to make the entire 24 percent PF contribution of both employer and employees for a further period of three months.

The government has also released the First installment of PM-KISAN (Rs 16,394 crore) and transferred it to 8.19 crore identified farmers who got Rs 2,000 directly in their account.

The government has also disbursed Rs 20,344 crore to women Jan Dhan account holders till June 2. A sum of Rs 10,029 crore was disbursed to 20.05 crore Women Jan Dhan account holders (98.3 percent beneficiary as the first installment of Rs 500 payment. Moreover, Rs 10,315 crore has also been credited to 20.63 crore women Jan Dhan account holders (100 percent beneficiaries) as second installment payment.

In addition, the government has also released Rs 2,814 crore to about 2.81 crore old age persons, widows, and disabled persons. Each beneficiary received ex-gratia cash of Rs 500 under the scheme as the first installment and another Rs 500 as the second installment. For each installment the government disbursed Rs 1,407 crore to 100 percent identified beneficiaries.

Also, 2.3 crore Building & Construction workers have so far received financial support amounting to Rs 4,313 crore.