BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has cancelled over 8.16 lakh ghost ration cards during the ongoing e-KYC drive in the state and saved Rs 210 crore per annum for the exchequer.
Minister for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Krushna Chandra Patra informed this in the Assembly on Friday while replying to an adjournment motion notice brought by the Opposition BJD and Congress. The minister said the e-KYC drive was launched by the state government after the BJP came to power 17 months back. Under the exercise, over 6.95 lakh ghost cards were detected and cancelled. Besides, ration cards of other undeserving beneficiaries including over 75,000 government employees and 45,496 people paying Income Tax have also been cancelled, he added.
Countering Opposition allegations that the state government has cancelled ration cards of many genuine beneficiaries under the e-KYC drive, the minister asserted that not a single such person has been deleted from the list. He said more than 96 per cent ration cardholders have already completed e-KYC authentication. The e-KYC authentication of rest four per cent has been held up for technical and other reasons.
The minister alleged that under the erstwhile BJD government, ration cards of over 10 lakh beneficiaries were cancelled on political grounds. The BJD government had politicised the entire system, he said and added that the BJP is trying to bring transparency to the entire process by providing ration cards to genuine beneficiaries.
Stating that the department portal for applying for ration cards was never functional during the BJD government, the minister said the present dispensation has started the process for providing new ration cards. The state government has already provided new ration cards to 6,39,827 eligible beneficiaries, he added.
The Odisha government has been removing dead and ineligible beneficiaries from the public distribution system (PDS) during the ongoing statewide e-KYC verification process. The national mandate of e-KYC verification which started in August 2024, has been extended multiple times due to several factors especially poor internet facility in remote areas of the state. In Odisha, the last date for completion of verification has been extended to December 31, he added.
The minister said 3.3 crore people from 96 lakh families of the state are covered under the food security schemes of the Centre and the state. The beneficiaries include 3.26 crore under the National Food Security Act and over 6.48 lakh under the State Food Security Scheme.
Participating in the debate, members Ranendra Pratap Swain, Ashok Das and C Rajen Ekka alleged that names of lakhs of genuine beneficiaries have been deleted in the e-KYC drive. They demanded that the state government reconsider the matter and include beneficiaries whose names have been deleted for technical and other reasons.