PMGKAY Scheme Extension To The Poor For Three Month 

Weighing in on PMGKAY, the free grains scheme

• The extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a scheme to distribute free food grains to the poor, for another three months.

Reasons behind it 

• First, in the months prior to the latest extension made in late September 2022, there was much debate on the relevance of freebies.
• Second, there were reports in June that the Expenditure Department at the Centre did not favour it, citing a funds crunch. It also held that such a scheme was no longer needed “in non-pandemic times”. 
• This must be viewed in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, raging since February 2022, and its adverse impact on the world’s food and energy sectors.

Welfare or self-interest?

• Even more surprising is the Government’s reason that it wanted to support the poor and the vulnerable, estimated to be 80 crores, during the festival season between October and December. 
• No such consideration was shown when the scheme was discontinued between December 2020 and April 2021, another important time for festivities. The country had still to recover from the effects of the first COVID-19 wave, which was the trigger for the launch of the scheme in April 2020.
• Critics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party point out that the scheme’s extension is with an eye on the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, respectively. Also, the first extension fell in the period when the Bihar Assembly poll was held and the BJP shared power with the Janata Dal (United) in the State. 
• The scheme is also regarded as one of the factors responsible for the BJP’s victory in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

Reintroduction of the scheme 

• In contrast, the PMGKAY was not in force from December 2020-April 2021 when five States including West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, went to the polls. 
• It was reintroduced in May 2021 when there were indications of a second pandemic wave and has been running since without interruption.

Benefited people 

• Aimed at providing an additional allocation of foodgrains (rice or wheat) from the central pool at five kilograms per person per month free of cost, the PMGKAY benefits cardholders of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories, both falling under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). 
• This is over and above the regular monthly quota under the NFSA, i.e., 35 kg per month per family for AAY and 5 kg per month a person for PHH. 
• The PMGKAY covers even Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) beneficiaries. After considering the estimated outgo of food grains — about 122 lakh tonnes during the current phase of extension, the aggregate allocation will be around 1,121 lakh tonnes. 
• With the expenditure of ₹ 44,762 crores for the existing phase, the overall spending of the PMGKAY will be approximately ₹ 3.91 lakh crore.

PMGKAY – Huge relief to people 

• Policymakers and experts concede that the scheme made a difference to food security and public health during the pandemic. 
• Be it the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food and Public Distribution or the authors of an IMF-published working paper, “Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India” (April 2022), the scheme has received a commendation. 
• The working paper concluded that “the social safety net provided by the expansion of India’s food subsidy program absorbed a major part of the pandemic shock.”
• However, it would have been far better had the Government taken the decision to extend the scheme based on findings of an objective study regarding the impact of the PMGKAY, as suggested by the Standing Committee in its March 2022 report.

Keeping budgetary allocation under control 

• To keep the budgetary allocation under control, rules on quotas for rice or wheat can be changed suitably. 
• While it is all right to provide foodgrains free during the pandemic, the central and State authorities need to ponder over the scheme’s continuance, given the chronic problem of diversion from the Public Distribution System (PDS). 
• In the non-pandemic period, the problem of diversion assumes a more significant dimension when a family of five, covered under PHH and living in a congested city, encounters practical difficulties in storing 50 kg of rice or wheat a month, of which 25 kg is free. 
• Just as it did in the initial months of the pandemic, the Centre should consider providing 1 kg pulses free to States on a regular basis, or at least at highly subsidised rates.

Welfare states 

• In many states, including West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka, 50 kg is free. In Tamil Nadu, for over 10 years, rice drawing card holders, be they PHH or non-PHH, have been getting rice free.

A Transparent study is needed 

• At least now, the central authorities should commission a study and make its findings public.
• In fact, the proposed study should be the basis for updating the database of food grain drawing card holders, scrutinising the data critically and zeroing in on the needy. The task should not be onerous, given the widespread application of technological tools in the PDS such as Aadhaar, automation of fair price shops and capturing of the biometric data of beneficiaries. 
• Using this database, the Centre and States can decide whether the size of the PHHs — nearly 71 crores — can be pruned or not.
• In addition, if they feel the need to go beyond the mandate of the NFSA, as is being done under the PMGKAY, they can supply the food grains at a reasonable price. The culture of providing essential commodities free of cost at the drop of a hat must go.
• The elimination of the problem of diversion of food grains must be taken up with renewed vigour as, after all, farmers toil hard in the fields to produce the grains and many deserving persons remain outside the food security net.