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The Union Cabinet approved a bill to repeal the three farm laws on Wednesday, which led to protests by thousands of farmers at Delhi borders. The announcement was made by the I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said the cabinet completed the formality of approving the repeal of three laws, as announced by the Prime Minister on November 19. The new bill will be passed in the upcoming winter session beginning November 29.

Repealing these three legislations has been one of the key demands from around 40 farmer unions that have been protesting against them for almost a year now.

Free foodgrain supplies to continue

The cabinet also decided to extend the free foodgrains supply till March under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) to provide relief to ration cardholders.

Under the PMGKAY, the 5 kg food grain per person per month is being provided free of cost to more than 80 crore beneficiaries.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown across the country, the scheme was initially launched for three months from April 2020 to provide relief poor people. Since then, it has been extended several times.

The I&B Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said that the PMGKAY has been extended by four months till March 2022 after the Cabinet meeting.

He also said that this will cost an additional Rs 53,344 crore to the exchequer and added that the total cost of PMGKAY would reach about Rs 2.6 lakh crore, which includes the extension.

The PMGKAY was provided for three months from April 2020 to June 2020, to ameliorate distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the continuing crisis meant that the programme was extended for another five months between July and November 2020.

At the onset of the second Covid wave, the PMGKAY was once again rolled out for two months between May to June 2021 and was further extended for five months (July to November 2021).