Digitisation, Aadhaar linking of ration cards help eliminate 2.75 cr bogus cards

The government has eliminated over 2.75 crore duplicate and bogus ration cards with the complete digitisation of ration cards and linking them to Aadhaar number of beneficiaries.

While the digitisation of ration cards was initiated in January 2013, Food ministry officials stated that the process gained momentum in the past four years and the progress is about 82%.

Food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan was quoted saying to TOI, “We have plugged the leakage of subsidised wheat, rice and coarse grains to the tune of Rs 17,500 crore annually. Though there are no direct savings because new beneficiaries also get added, now we are providing the foodgrains to the real beneficiaries.”

According to the government data, nearly 50% of the deleted ration cards came from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with a large number of duplicate ration cards deleted in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

So far about 23.19 crore ration cards have been issued to people under the world’s largest welfare scheme, National Food Security Act (NFSA), which targets ensuring food security to more than 80 crore eligible beneficiaries.