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Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 2 (EMN): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nagaland has welcomed the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for another five months till November.
Briefing the media persons at its party head office in Kohima, the president of BJP Nagaland unit and minister of Higher and Technical Education and Tribal Affairs, Temjen Imna Along, stated that PMGKAY is the largest food security scheme in the world that started earlier this year in a move to combat Covid-19 crisis. incur
Along maintained that Modi-led NDA government is additionally incurring INR 90,000 crore to be spent in providing free food grains to the poor section of the society with five kilogram of rice and one kilogram of wheat every month to the poor that would cover 80 crore people in India.
He stated that the programme could feed 2.5 times the United States (US) population, 12 times the United Kingdom (UK) population and twice the European Union population.
The food grains were distributed from April till June to all the beneficiaries under the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) for Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household (PHH) ration card holders and the scheme has now been extended by five months (till November), Along said.
He also thanked all taxpayers throughout the country for making the scheme possible to ensure sufficient food for the poor and needy.
Meanwhile, Along stated that the government had taken pro-poor measures during the lockdown by spending an amount of INR 1.75 lakh crore under PM Garib Kalayan Yojana (PMGKY) to provide food to those in need. He added that Modi-led NDA government had transferred INR 31,000 crore to almost 20 crore poor families via Jan Dhan accounts in the last three months, while INR 18,000 crore was transferred to bank accounts of over 9 crore farmers.
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long also stated that PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan (PMKRA) was launched to provide employment of Shramiks (returnees such as artisans, workers) in rural areas, for which the central government would spend INR 50,000 crore.
He maintained that the country’s move towards ‘one nation, one ration card’ would benefit the poor who travel to other parts of the state in search of work. He also highlighted on the activities and initiatives taken by the Modi-led government in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The central government is working to expand economic activities and pledged to work towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat (to be local for local work), he said, adding that Aatmanirbha Bharat is relevant for the state of Nagaland as the PDA-led government under the leadership of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio is pursuing towards self-reliant Nagaland.