More than 30 crore beneficiaries have been directly given support through Direct Benefit Transfer amounting to Rs28,256 crore by both the centre and states under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana financial relief package announce on 26 March, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, Rs500 has been deposited in the accounts of 19.86 crore women account holders, amounting to Rs9,930 crore while under the National Social Assistance Programme for aged widows, divyang and senior citizens, 2.82 crore beneficiaries have been paid Rs500 each as the first installment. The second installment will be paid in May. About 6.93 crore farmers have also received Rs2,000 each as advance payment under PM-Kisan amounting to Rs13,855 crore. State governments have also paid Rs3,066 crore to 2.16 crore construction workers from the Welfare Fund for Building and Other Constructions Workers with accumulated fund size of Rs31,000 crore as directed by the centre.

On Friday, finance ministry informed that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, centre is in the process of releasing 12 million metric tonne of food grain during April-June quarter. “It will provide for 80 crore people@ 5 kg per head per month at no cost. Free rations have already reached 2 cr beneficiaries," finance ministry tweeted.

Under the financial relief package announced last month, state governments have also been advised to utilize the funds available under the district mineral fund worth Rs25,000 crore for the purposes of testing, medical screening and prevention measures for containing the spread of COVID-19. The centre has released Rs17,287 crore as first installment on account of centre's share of state disaster response mitigation fund (SDRMF) as well as revenue deficit grants in order to enhance financial resources of states to fight the covid-19 outbreak. Last week, the centre also released a ₹15,000 crore package to help states with their covid-19 emergency response and health system preparedness over four years. However, in a meeting with the prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, state chief ministers asked for a larger stimulus package to help them reduce fight the coronavirus pandemic.

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