New Delhi, Jun 30 (IANS): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday held a meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM) at his North Block office here after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the free ration scheme for 80 crore poor by five more months.

Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Piyush Goel attended the meeting, which was chaired by Shah. The meeting began around 5.30 pm and was still on at the time of filing of the report.

The Home Minister called the meeting soon after the Prime Minister in his address to the nation announced the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) till November to provide 5 kg free rice or wheat to each member of a beneficiary family along with 1 kg gram (chana) to each family per month.

As the scheme would continue to remain applicable from July till November, it is learnt, the GoM is discussing the management and implementation of the PMGKAY scheme.

During this five-month period, more than 80 crore people will be provided free ration per month and the government will spend more than Rs 90,000 crore on the same. If the expenses in the previous three months are taken into account, the expenditure totals to almost Rs 1.5 lakh crore.