In an attempt to mitigate the hardships and economic distress caused to citizens due to Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, the central government authorities had launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)- an enhanced ration entitlement project for card holders which ensured extra provision of five kilograms of food grain free of cost per person.
Under the scheme, three kilograms of wheat and two kilograms of rice have to be provided free of cost to the beneficiaries. However, thousands of card holders living in the twin-city are still waiting to get their enhanced ration entitlement for the past one month, exposing the apathy of the central government authorities.
There are 106 fair price shops (FPS) which cater to the rationing needs of around 48,000 card holders living in the twin-city. According to some ration card holders, they were receiving the food grains till June-2021, but since then the FPS operators have been expressing their helplessness in providing the free commodities owing to glitches in the supply mechanism.
When contacted, rationing officer, Jitendra Patil said, “Yes, there has been a delay in supplies. However, we are into the process of completing the July backlog and have been regularly following up with our higher-ups and expect to streamline the supply by the end of this month.”
A similar situation prevails in other parts of Thane district, sources said.
After the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19, the PM-GKAY was launched in 2020 and was reintroduced for May-June 2021 to deal with the impact of the second wave of the pandemic. Recently, the scheme was further extended for five months till November-2021. It was claimed that the regular subsidized food grains provided under the National Food Security Act were being made available, thus exposing the double standards of the government authorities.
