Following presentation of the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament, the BJD has appealed to the Centre for resumption of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for food security of the poor.
BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra told the media on Friday that Centre was providing additional 5-kg free rice per person under the PMGKAY apart from 5-kg rice under thje National Food Security Act (NFSA). However, the discontinuation of the scheme would affect the household food security of poor as well as farmers.
In the Budget, the Centre has reduced the provision in the food security by about Rs 71,000 crore as compared to the amount spent by the Centre in 2021-22.
“This reduction is primarily due to the stopping of the PMGKAY. After the Covid pandemic, the industries and livelihood are still to come back to normalcy. Stopping of PMGKAY now will affect the poor and their chance to get their live back to normalcy,” Mishra said.
The farmers would also be affected due to this. The Budget has also a reduction of about Rs 20,000 crore compared to the amount spent by the Centre in 2021-22 in the procurement of food grains. This is again due to the stopping of PMGKAY and, therefore, reduction in procurement from farmers. Due to the reduced procurement, farmers would also be deprived of getting their Minimum Support Price (MSP) for food grains, he said.
Before stopping such a huge programme, the Centre should have either provided an alternate programme or taken care of the financial adverse impact it could cause to the poor, he said, adding that in the interests of poor and farmers, the Centre should think on these lines and restart the PMGKAY.
