New Delhi, Jun 3 (IANS): Around 42 crore beneficiaries have been directly given cash support through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) amounting to Rs 53,248 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) till June 2, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Rs 1.7 lakh crore PMGKP package was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 to protect weaker and most vulnerable sections of the society from the impact of the lockdown due to Covid-19.
Under the package, the government announced free food grains and cash payment to women and poor senior citizens and farmers. It's swift implementation is being continuously monitored by Central and state governments.
So far, the government has transferred Rs 8,488 crore into the bank accounts of PM Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries. Also, 8.58 crore free Ujjwala cylinders have been delivered while a total of 9.25 crore cylinders have been booked. Under the package, the government has decided to distribute free cooking gas cylinders to Ujjwala beneficiaries for three months till June 30.
The Finance Ministry statement said that as of June 2, the government has also released an amount of Rs 895 crore for the benefit of 59.23 lakh EPFO account holder employees where government has decided to make the entire 24 per cent PF contribution of both employer and employees for a further period of three months.
The government has also released First instalment of PM-KISAN (Rs 16,394 crore) and transferred it to 8.19 crore identified farmers who got Rs 2,000 directly in their account.
The government has also disbursed Rs 20,344 crore to women Jan Dhan account holders till June 2. A sum of Rs 10,029 crore was disbursed to 20.05 crore Women Jan Dhan account holders (98.3 per cent beneficiary as first instalment of Rs 500 payment. Moreover, Rs 10,315 crore has also been credited to 20.63 crore women Jan Dhan account holders (100 per cent beneficiaries) as second instalment payment.
In addition, the government has also released Rs 2,814 crore to about 2.81 crore old age persons, widows and disabled persons. Each beneficiary received an ex-gratia cash of Rs 500 under the scheme as the first instalment and another Rs 500 as second instalment. For each instalment the government disbursed Rs 1,407 crore to 100 per cent identified beneficiaries.
Also, 2.3 crore Building & Construction workers have so far received financial support amounting to Rs 4,313 crore.