India / Over 42 cr poor receive ₹65,454 cr under PM's Garib Kalyan Package

New Delhi: Over 42 crore poor people have received financial assistance worth Rs 65,454 crore as on June 19, 2020, under the Rs 1.70 lakh crore Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package, according to the data from Ministry of Finance. The amount is marginally up from Rs 53,248 crore, disclosed by the government earlier this month. The government had earlier announced free food grains and cash payment to women and poor senior citizens and farmers under the scheme. The biggest chunk of the amount — Rs 30,952 crore has been credited to 61.9 crore women Jan Dhan account holders in three instalments. Moreover, Rs 17,891 crore was front-loaded for payment of the first instalment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) to 8.94 crore beneficiaries, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

PM Modi had also launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan on Saturday aimed at providing employment to migrant workers impacted due to the Covid lockdown. The initiative will run for 125 days across 116 districts in the six states. For this, Rs 50,000-crores has been dedicated and around 25 work areas have been identified for jobs and development works in villages. Modi said that the government is making efforts so that labourers don’t have to take loans during the Corona pandemic. He added that the mapping of the skills of all workers has been started in the village itself to help them get work according to their skills.

The Finance Ministry also said that 8.52 crore cylinders under the PM Ujjawala Yojana have been delivered during April and May 2020 while 2.1 crore cylinders have been booked for June 2020 out of which 1.87 crore cylinders have been delivered to beneficiaries.

In terms of food grain distribution, 113 Lakh MT  food grains have been lifted by 36 states/UTs for April while 37.01 Lakh MT has been distributed among 74.03 crore beneficiaries. For May, 36.42 Lakh MT food grain has been distributed covering 72.83 crore beneficiaries by 36 states/UTs. Similarly for June, 13.59 Lakh MT has been distributed to 27.18 crore beneficiaries by 29 States/UTs. 3.35 Lakh MT pulses have been distributed so far to 16.3 crore household beneficiaries out of 19.4 crore beneficiaries.

The ministry also shared details around benefits to EPFO members under the package. 20.22 lakh EPFO members have taken benefit of “online withdrawal of non-refundable advance from EPFO account amounting to Rs 5767crore,” the ministry said. Rs 36,379 crore was released to states to close pending dues of both wage and material. Moreover, 24 per cent EPF contribution transferred to 65.74 Lakh employees account was worth Rs 996.46 crore. Also, under District Mineral Fund (DMF), states have been asked to spend 30 per cent of the funds amounting to Rs 3,787 crore. Out of this, Rs 183.65 crore has been spent.