4.28 cr bogus ration cards cancelled during 2014-2021

The government has cancelled 4.28 crore bogus ration cards during 2014-21, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said on Friday. Aadhaar and extensive use of Information Technology has helped in the detection of bogus users. Under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices at the Fair Price Shops (FPSs) are operated by the FPS dealers.

Further, to ensure regular delivery of subsidised foodgrains to the differently-abled and old-age National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries, with no other adult member in the household and who are not in a position to visit the FPSs, all States/UTs are advised to implement mechanisms for a special dispensation of foodgrains to such beneficiaries, either through home-delivery or through their nominated persons, said Jyoti in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. "Under NFSA inter-alia the operational responsibilities of inclusion and exclusion of households/ beneficiaries rests with the respective State/UT Governments," she said.

The addition and deletion of ration cards is a continuous process, wherein the States/UTs regularly review their list of ration cards/beneficiaries to identify and weed out potentially ineligible, duplicate or bogus ration cards after proper verification, which may also include field/ door to door verification and to include other genuinely eligible and left out households/beneficiaries, which may also include eligible tribal and poor families/ persons, up to their respective limits of NFSA coverage. "Accordingly, due to use of information technology for TPDS reforms, digitization of ration cards data, de-duplication process, permanent migration, deaths, identification of ineligible/duplicate/fake ration cards, etc. the States/UTs have reported the cancellation of about 4.28 Crore such bogus ration cards during the period 2014 to 2021 so far," the minister noted.