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(The Gist of PIB) Ujjwala Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

[July-2020]

Union Cabinet has approved the extension of time limit by three months w.e.f. 01.07.2020 for availing the benefits of “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana” for Ujjwala beneficiaries.
Union Cabinet has approved further extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) as part of Economic Response to COVID-19, for another Five months from July to November, 2020.

The Government had announced a relief package ” Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana” which also included relief for poor families who had availed of an LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
Under the PMGKY-Ujjwala, it was decided to provide free of cost refills for PMUY consumers for a period of 3 months w.e.f. 01.04.2020.
Under the Scheme, Rs. 9709.86 Cr was transferred directly into the bank accounts of Ujjwala beneficiaries during April- June 2020 and 11.97 Crore cylinders were delivered to the PMUY beneficiaries.
Now, the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to extend the time-limit for availing the advance by three months.

Under the Scheme it is proposed to distribute 9.7 Lakh MT cleaned whole Chana to States/UTs for distribution to all beneficiary households under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) @ 1kg per month free of cost under for next five months -July to November, 2020 at a total estimated cost of Rs.6,849.24 crore.
About 19.4 crore households would be covered under the Scheme.
All expenses on the extended PMGKAY are to be borne by the Central Government.
The distribution of pulses for the package emanated from robust availability of stock in the buffer which was set up in 2015-2016.