Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the Delhi government has decided to extend the distribution of free ration in the city for six months till May 31, 2022.
The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting on Monday.
"We have started distributing free ration ever since the outbreak of coronavirus. The time period of this scheme has ended, so this is being extended by six months. The Cabinet today decided that free ration distribution will continue till May 31 next year," Mr Kejriwal said in a virtual press conference.
The scheme ended on November 30.
The Delhi government distributes free ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
The city has over 2,000 fair price shops, 17.77 lakh ration card holders and around 72.78 lakh beneficiaries.
Free ration is given over and above subsidised grains distributed to them through ration shops. The PMGKAY was launched in March last year to ameliorate distress caused by COVID-19.
Initially, the scheme was launched for April-June last year, but was later extended to November 30.
In November this year, Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had said that the Centre had no proposal to extend distribution of free ration through the PMGKAY beyond November 30.
Then too, Mr Kejriwal had said that the free ration distribution would be continued in Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government till May 31, 2022.
The Delhi Chief Minister had also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to extend the free ration distribution scheme to benefit the poor.
Later in the day, the government released a statement saying under the NFS Act 2013, five kg of food grains were given free of cost to the needy, including migrant workers, unorganised workers, construction workers, domestic helpers and those who do not have ration cards.
The government provided 4 kg of wheat and 1 kg of rice per person per month.
"During that time, about 20 lakh people living in Delhi benefited from this decision of the cabinet. In addition, free food grains are being provided to 72.78 lakh PDS beneficiaries under regular allocation under NFSA," the statement said.
It added that the number of non-PDS (Public Distribution System) poor beneficiaries living in Delhi has increased to about 40 lakh and they are also being provided food grains.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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