Ration Card Update- The central government has started a large-scale sorting out of the list of ration card holders. For the first time, the Department of Food and Public Distribution has prepared a list of ration card holders who may not be eligible for benefits like free grains. This list includes about 1.17 crore people. These are people who either have four-wheelers or are income tax payers or directors in companies. The Center has directed the states to do the necessary verification to remove these ineligible card holders by September 30.
The Department of Food and Public Distribution has prepared this list by matching the details of ration card holders with various government data bases. This includes data from departments like Income Tax Department (taxpayers), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (directors) and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (four-wheeler owners). This cross-verification found that 94.71 lakh ration card holders are income tax payers, 17.51 lakh own four-wheelers and 5.31 lakh people are directors in companies.
Attempt to remove ineligible beneficiaries
According to a report, an official of the department said that based on this data, the states will be able to remove ineligible beneficiaries, so that the needy people on the waiting list can get benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). According to the NFSA dashboard, 19.17 crore ration cards have been issued till August 19, covering a total of 76.10 crore beneficiaries in 36 states and union territories.
According to the rules, government employees, families with annual income of more than Rs 1 lakh, four-wheeler owners and taxpayers are not eligible for free food grains. The Center wrote a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all states and advisors of Union Territories on July 8, stressing on this issue.
Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said in the letter that duplicate, dead and inactive beneficiaries have already been identified in the Ration Card Management System (RCMS). Now a list of ineligible beneficiaries has been prepared by matching it with data from other ministries. This list will be made available to the states through API-based integration, which can be viewed on the ‘Rightful Targeting Dashboard’.
Chopra urged the states to verify these cases, remove ineligible beneficiaries and purify the data. He said that this step will strengthen the fairness and integrity of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). This will open the way for the inclusion of those needy people who are still deprived of this scheme. The Center had earlier also canceled 1.34 crore fake or ineligible ration cards during 2021-2023.
The limit of covering 81.35 crore people under NFSA is 50 percent of the population in urban areas and 75 percent of the population in rural areas. The NDA government has made a provision to provide free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.