Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II- Governance; Welfare schemes
In News:
The Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan (PMGK) package was recently unveiled amidst COVID-19 pandemic and the 21-day associated lockdown to combat the disease.
It mainly targets poor people and people working in unorganised sector of the country.
It consists of a range of measures that the Government of India will take to alleviate the economic, health, and food-related distress.
Key takeaways:
Reliefs/Schemes under PMGK package:
For farmers–
Rs 2,000 per farmer will be provided under the PM-KISAN scheme.
For pensioners –
An additional Rs 1,000 per month pension for the next 3 months for those receiving old age, widow or disability pensions.
For women –
Rs 500 per month will be transferred for the next 3 months to women holding a Jan Dhan bank account.
Registered beneficiaries under Ujjwala Yojana will get one LPG cylinder per month free of cost for the next three months.
Women Self Help Groups can now take collateral-free loans up to Rs 20 lakh instead of the existing limit of Rs 10 lakh under National Rural Livelihood Mission.
For labourers –
Wages paid for manual labour under MGNREGA have been increased from Rs 180 per day to Rs 202 per day.
For BPL families –
Over the next 3 months, each person who is covered under the National Food Security Act would get an additional five kg wheat or rice for free, in addition to the 5 kg of subsidised food grains already provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
One kg of pulse per household would also be provided for free.
For companies –
For small companies with 100 employees or less, of whom 90% earn less than Rs. 15,000 a month, the Centre will bear the cost of both employer and employee contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the next three months.
The scheme’s regulations will also be amended to allow non-refundable advance of 75% of the amount standing to the credit of the EPF member, or 3 months’ worth of wages, whichever is lower.
For construction workers –
The Centre also directed the States to use the Rs. 31,000 crore available under Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Boards to provide support to the workers registered under the scheme.
The money already available in the “district (-level) mineral fund” to pay for medical testing and screening for the coronavirus shall also be utilised under PMGK package.
