New Delhi, Jun 3 (IANS): The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that 55 crore beneficiaries in May and about 2.6 crore beneficiaries in June received free food grains under PMGKAY.

Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Sudhanshu Pandey on Thursday briefed the media about the progress of foodgrains distribution under PMGKAY-III and the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.

Speaking about the "Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojanaa (PM-GKAY III), the Secretary said that more than 63.67 lakh MT foodgrains (i.e. around 80 percent of the total PMGKAY allocation for May and June 2021) have been lifted by the States/UTs from FCI depots.

Around 28 lakh MT foodgrains have been distributed by 34 States/UTs to around 55 crore NFSA beneficiaries in May 2021 and around 1.3 lakh MT foodgrains have been distributed to around 2.6 crore NFSA beneficiaries in June 2021 so far, after following due COVID protocols.

Under the National Food Security Act, foodgrains have been distributed to around 90 percent and 12 percent of NFSA beneficiaries in May and June 2021, respectively, incurring a food subsidy of more than Rs 13,000 crore for May and June. The food subsidy incurred for PMGKAY, so far, is more than Rs 9,200 crore for May and June.

Emphasising the importance of 'One Nation One Ration Card' (ONORC), the Secretary, DFPD shared that it is an ambitious plan of the Department to introduce nationwide portability of ration cards under the National Food Security Act.

He said that at present, a monthly average of about 1.35 crore portability transactions are being recorded under the ONORC plan (including intra-state transactions). Further, a total of nearly 27.8 crore portability transactions have taken place all across the States/UTs since the inception of the ONORC plan from August 2019, out of which almost 19.8 crore portability transactions have been recorded during the COVID-19 period i.e., from April 2020 to May 2021.

The government said that for the One Nation One Ration Card plan to ensure access to NFSA foodgrains to migrant NFSA beneficiaries during the COVID-19 crisis, this department has been continuously pursuing with the States/UTs, proactively reaching out to the migrant beneficiaries.