Under the Centre's flagship free ration scheme, beneficiaries were getting more food grains than they could consume, and were selling the surplus in the market, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday.
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“Are you not getting five kg food grains?” he asked attendees at an election rally in Bihar's Karakat Lok Sabha constituency.
“If there are four members in a family, each is getting a supply of five kg, and those who have more than enough to consume, sell off the surplus,” the senior BJP leader said.
Singh, however, stated that the BJP-led central government was not doing people a “favour” by providing them with welfare measures, adding that “BJP people work with the spirit of service.”
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He also cited figures to assert that the country's food inflation rate was the “lowest in the world.”
{{/usCountry}}He also cited figures to assert that the country's food inflation rate was the “lowest in the world.”
{{/usCountry}}“There is so much hullabaloo around price rise. I would like to tell you that the food inflation in the country is the lowest in the world at 2.91%. In the United States, it is 7.79%, 19% in France, 8.5% in Australia, 48% in Pakistan and, 21% in Sri Lanka,” he noted.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGK-AY)
Under the scheme, the central government provides five kg of free food grains to the poor; this is in addition to the subsidised ( ₹2-3 per kg) offered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to families who come under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The food grain and the amount may be variable.
PMGK-AY was introduced in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme to supply free food grains to migrants and poor.
(With PTI inputs)