The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the 'one nation, one ration' scheme will be implemented through technology-driven structures.
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the 'one nation, one ration' scheme will be implemented through technology-driven structures.
Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the 'one nation, one ration' scheme as part of the announcements made for the welfare of migrant workers, street vendors, farmers, and middle- income groups.
As per the scheme, ration cards will be made portable throughout the nation in order to help migrants to access PDS from fair price shops all over the country. She added that 83% of the PDS users in 23 states, a total of 67 crore beneficiaries, will be covered by this scheme by August 2020. She said 100% portability is expected to be achieved by March 2021.
Other announcements made by the Minister include free food grain supply to migrant workers for two months, affordable rental housing complexes, interest subvention of 2% for MUDRA-Shishu loans, special credit facility for street vendors to the tune of Rs.5,000 crores, and credit-linked subsidy scheme for middle classes.
Those who are not covered under the National Food Security Act or do not own a state card will be provided with five kilos of grains per person and one kilo channa per family for two months. A total of Rs.35,000 crores is expected to be spent on this and the cost of these supplies will be borne by the Center.Around eight crore migrant workers are expected to benefit from this. The state governments will be responsible for the implementation.
Affordable rental housing complexes will be launched under the PM Awas Yojna and vacant houses in the government funded housing complexes in major cities will be used to house migrants.
In a move beneficial three crore people, the interest on MUDRA-Shishu loans have been subsidized by 2%.
More than 50 lakh street vendors are expected to be benefited within a month with the provision of initial working capital of up to Rs.10,000, which will be provided through access to credit which will be facilitated by the government.
Housing needs of the middle class will be assisted by the credit linked subsidy scheme which has been extended up to March 2021. This scheme is applicable to the middle-income group, with the annual income between Rs.6 lakhs and Rs.18 lakhs.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also made announcements for tribals/adivasis and farmers. Under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, Rs.6,000 crores will be provided to the tribals and adivasis, which will help with the creation of job opportunities for them.
Rs.30,000 crores will be provided for farmers through NABARD as additional emergency working capital fund. Around 3 crores small and marginal farmers will benefit from this. The provision is expected to cover the post-harvest and current kharif requirements in May and June. She also announced Rs.2-lakh crore concessional credit boost through Kisan Credit Cards to 2.5 crore farmers. The KCC will cover fishermen and animal husbandry farmers enabling them to access institutional credit at reduced rates.