TMC MP urges Centre to extend free foodgrain scheme by 6 more months

MP | 11 Dec 2022 | KOLKATA: Considering the financial blows caused to the common people by the pandemic, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to extend the free foodgrain program, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), by six more months till June 2023. 

The PMGKAY scheme will end this month (December 31). In his letter, Roy stated that the backlash of COVID-19 pandemic, which is related to financial miseries, had not yet been over, so extension of the scheme by another six months would be of great benefit to the common people. 

The scheme covers around 5.5 crore people in the state. Roy, in another letter to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Piyush Goyal, urged for reconsideration of the Centre's decision of doing away with more than 2.78 lakh fair price shops under individual ownership and replacing them with Self Help Groups of Co-operatives. 

Roy had stated that such a decision would affect the livelihood of the ration dealers and their family members and would bring them to streets with begging bowls. 

"It will be impossible for them to find any alternative occupation as they do not have either the age or the knowledge," the letter read. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/tmc-mp-urges-centre-to-extend-free-foodgrain-scheme-by-6-more-months-501849