Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced plans to continue providing free rations to 150 million people in the state. A formal decision in this regard was taken at the first meeting of the Yogi 2.0 cabinet held at Lok Bhawan on Saturday. “The first decision of the newly formed government in Uttar Pradesh is dedicated to 150 million poor people,” CM Adityanath said while making the announcement.
Adityanath said that during the epidemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Anna Yojana” to help every citizen. From April 2020 to March 2022, about 800 million people in the country have benefited from this project. At the same time, the central government as well as the state government distributed free rations.
The Chief Minister said that the free ration scheme was very effective in tackling the problem of hunger caused by the loss of livelihood due to the epidemic. Under the scheme, cardholders of Antyodaya and eligible families are getting double dose of free ration.
“The scheme expires in March 2022. At the first cabinet meeting of the new government, it was decided to extend it for the next three months till June 22,” the CM said.
Emphasizing on transparent system of ration distribution, he said that e-POS machines have been installed in 80,000 fair price shops in the state, which made it possible to distribute rations to the right beneficiaries.
In addition to the central government, the state government is providing free rations to 150 million poor people from its own resources. Under the scheme, the state government is providing 35 kg of foodgrains to Antyodaya card holders, while eligible families are getting five kg of foodgrains per unit.
Since December 2021, the state government has been supplying food grains along with one liter of refined oil, one kg of pulses and one kg of salt and one kg of sugar to the Antyodaya class families.
The first cabinet meeting of Adityanath’s second consecutive government was held here this morning after taking oath on Friday.
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