free ration scheme
On December 24, 2022, the official Twitter account of the Hindi news portal Bolta Hindustan quoted Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s statement regarding the Free Ration scheme of the central government in a tweet. The tweet quotes, “Elections are coming, so BJP has again started distributing free ration, free refined oil, free gram, beware of them: Akhilesh Yadav”.
This statement came after the central government shut down PMGKAY however decided to continue Free ration to the poor under NFSA (National Food Security Act) till December 2023.
So, is it true that BJP is distributing free ration only to get benefits in upcoming elections? Let’s Fact Check.
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During our research, we came across a report by The Times of India. According to this report, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was launched in April 2020 to help the poor people whose livelihoods were severely affected by a countrywide lockdown due to the spread of Covid-19.
The report also says that about 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) get free 5 kg food grains per person per month under this scheme.
Moreover, the PMGKAY never fully stopped since its launch in 2020 as it has been getting extension after extension.
Here is the list of all the extensions PMGKAY got since April 2020.
So, this proves that the extension of the Free Ration scheme to the poor has nothing to do with upcoming elections as claimed by Akhilesh Yadav because the Poor are getting free ration since April 2020.
Moreover, Akhilesh Yadav is not the only one who takes a dig at this Free Ration scheme. Many others including some propoganda journalists have also taken a dig at this from time to time, including NDTV’s journalists Swati Chaturvedi and Sanket Upadhyay.
So, This shows that this free ration scheme for the poor has always been looked upon by opposition and left leaning journalists as a trick by the central government to lure voters. However, this is not true, otherwise, the central government wouldn’t have given so many extensions to this free ration scheme for the poor since 2020 and wouldn’t continue giving free ration to the poor till December 2023 after the completion of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections.
| Claim | BJP is distributing free ration again because of upcoming elections. |
| Claimed by | Akhilesh Yadav |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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