The government still has so much grain that it can distribute for 15 months, 8.5 crore poor will get benefit for 5 months before elections in Bihar.

new Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came in public on Tuesday and extended the scheme for giving free food grains to 80 crore poor people of the country for 5 months till November. The name of the scheme that Modi has extended is - Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

Modi, in a 16-minute speech addressing the people of the country, mentioned Lokparva Chhath of Bihar twice. One reason behind referring to Chhath and that is that there are assembly elections in Bihar in October-November.

Home Minister Amit Shah had started a virtual campaign in Bihar in June itself and now Prime Minister Modi has also got into the election mood. However, the scheme that Modi has extended till November has been implemented from April itself.

First of all, what is a free grain plan?

The Modi government launched the Prime Minister's Poor Welfare Package during the Coronavirus phase in March. 1.70 lakh crores have been kept for this package. In this package, the food scheme was also started, in which it announced to give 5 kg of wheat or rice and 1 kg of pulses every month to more than 80 crore poor people of the country.

Under this scheme, people who have a ration card will get this free grain every month separately from their existing grain quota. Think of it like that ration cardholders used to get 5 kg grains and 1 kg pulses earlier. However, they have to pay some money for this. Whereas, under the food scheme they will get free only.

If the name of 5 people is linked in a ration card in a family. So every family member will get 25 kg of food grains and 1 kg of pulses free of cost under the food scheme. Apart from this, 25 kg of cereals and 1 kg of pulses can also be purchased by paying some money.

PM Modi had told in the name of the country that the government will spend 90 thousand crore rupees to extend the scheme for 5 months. Whereas, the poor have been getting free grain since April. So in a total of 8 months, the government is spending 1.5 lakh crores on this scheme.

How many people will get benefit in Bihar?

On March 30, the Department of Food and Distribution issued an order. This order was issued to all the states and union territories of the country. It was written in this order that under the Central Government's Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, 80.95 crore poor people across the country will get 5 kg of wheat or rice and 1 kg of pulses free for 3 months.

According to this order, 15.20 crore people in Uttar Pradesh will get the most free food grains. Bihar is at number two, where 8.57 crore people will get free grain. That is, 10% of the poor people across the country will get free food grains.

How much grain was distributed from April to June?

According to PIB, a total of 104.3 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 15.2 lakh metric tonnes of wheat were required for the three months of April to June under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Out of this, 101.02 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 15 lakh metric tonnes of wheat were taken from different states and UTs. That means a total of 116.02 lakh liter tonnes of food grains.

In April, 37.02 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were given to 74.05 crore (93%) people by the government under this scheme. In May, 36.49 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were given to 72.99 crore (91%) people and in June 28.41 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were given to 56.81 crore (71%) people.

The government spent 46 thousand crore rupees for rice and wheat, the entire expenditure was borne by the Central Government.

At the same time, a total of 5.87 lakh metric tonnes of pulses were needed for three months. For this, the Central Government has incurred an expenditure of 5 thousand crore rupees. From April to June, 4.40 lakh metric tonnes of pulses have been distributed.

How much grain is in stock right now?

According to the data available on the website of the Food Corporation of India, the government has 832.69 lakh metric tonnes of food grains till June. It has 274.44 lakh MT of rice and 558.25 lakh MT of wheat.

Apart from rice and wheat, 8.76 lakh metric tonnes of pulses were in stock till June 18. It has 3.77 lakh metric tons of tur dal, 1.14 lakh metric tons of moong dal, 2.28 lakh metric tons of urad dal, 1.30 lakh metric tons of gram dal and 0.27 lakh metric tons of lentils.

According to the government, about 55 lakh metric tonnes of food grains are required every month under the National Food Security Act i.e. NFSA and other schemes. Accordingly, by June 2020 the amount of food grains that the government has in stock, it can distribute food grains to the poor for the next 15 months.

Last thing, how is the government targeting Bihar through all this?

When Prime Minister Modi came to address the public on 30 June, he mentioned Chhath Puja twice. Chhath is the folk park of Bihar. That is why his address was linked to the preparations for the Bihar election.

According to the Election Commission, Bihar had 7.10 crore voters at the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Of these, 4.10 crore had cast their vote. Whereas, Bihar has the highest number of poor after Uttar Pradesh.

The state may hold elections in October-November. And by November only the poor will be distributed free grain. The number of people who will benefit from this scheme there is more than 8.5 crore.

The BJP had the highest vote share of 25% in the 2015 assembly elections. It received more than 93 lakh votes. However, BJP could win only 53 of the 243 assembly seats in the state in that election.

After that, BJP also got more than 96 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His vote share was over 24%. It won 17 seats out of 40.