On Tuesday, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced to hand out ‘free ration’ to all ration card holders in Delhi for a period of two months.”We have decided that all ration card holders in Delhi, around 72 lakhs in number, will be given free ration for the next 2 months,” said Kejriwal.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1389468587954298882?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwInterestingly, this announcement comes two weeks after the Central Government had already promised free ration for two months till June.
On April 23, the Central Government had announced that it will provide free food grains under the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana for the months of May and June 2021. Under this plan, 5 kilograms of free food grains would be provided to the beneficiaries which amount to around 80 crore people in the nation.
The Central Government will potentially spend more than Rs 26,000 crores on this initiative which has been put in place keeping in mind the prevailing COVID-19 crisis affecting the country.
We will provide 5-kg additional food grains for free to PDS beneficiaries under the PMGKAY for two months — May and June. This time, we are not providing pulses under this scheme,” Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had told PTI at the time.
Kejriwal also assured Delhiites that the duration of the scheme is not related to the lockdown measures, and that lockdown measures will not go on for another two months.
“It doesn’t mean that the lockdown will continue for 2 months. It is just being done to help the poor going through financial issues,” the Delhi CM said.
Delhi is now entering it third consecutive week of lockdown measures, with the Delhi Government extending the lockdown for a second time. The National Capital has been under lockdown since April 19.