CHANDIGARH: More than 14 lakh workers and over eight lakh Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job cards have been deleted in Punjab over the last five years, according to official data submitted in the Lok Sabha.
The deletions followed stricter scrutiny of applications, including the removal of duplicate and fake job cards, deletion of deceased beneficiaries and other verification measures.
The development comes as the AAP-led Punjab Government has begun implementing VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat Gram Governance), a digital governance initiative recently notified by the Union Government and aimed at strengthening rural administration and improving the delivery of government services at the village level.
Official data submitted in the Lok Sabha revealed that between 2021 and 2026, 14.05 lakh workers were removed from the MGNREGA database in Punjab and 8.04 lakh job cards were cancelled.
The deletions followed periodic verification drives undertaken by the state's Rural Development Department and the Central Government to ensure the accuracy of beneficiary records and curb irregularities.
The number of households seeking employment under MGNREGA has fallen from 6.46 lakh in 2025-26 to 3.02 lakh in 2026-27, indicating both a shrinking beneficiary base and reduced dependence on the scheme.
Officials claimed that the large scale deletions were due to several factors, including the removal of duplicate and fake job cards, deletion of deceased beneficiaries, beneficiaries opting out after securing regular employment, and the cancellation of cards that had remained inactive for prolonged periods.
Mandatory Aadhaar based authentication and periodic verification of records also led to the identification of ineligible beneficiaries. In other cases, job cards were deleted after all registered members were found to be ineligible or were no longer residing in the village.
Improved employment opportunities outside the scheme, particularly in agriculture, construction and allied sectors, have also led to a decline in the number of beneficiaries.
The exercise was carried out as part of a nationwide drive to weed out ineligible and duplicate beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, it is believed that the VB-G RAM G scheme will help maintain accurate beneficiary databases through proper verification and data integration.
With the beneficiary base shrinking and digital verification becoming more stringent, the focus of the rural job guarantee scheme is now shifting towards ensuring that benefits reach only eligible rural households while improving the quality of assets created under the scheme, sources said.
The AAP government's decision to implement the scheme appears to have been driven largely by its financial difficulties, as it faced the prospect of losing nearly Rs 750 crore to Rs 800 crore in Central funds meant for the scheme.
The notification of the new initiative signalled a major policy turnaround by the government.
On December 30 last year, the government convened a special session of the Punjab Assembly, where a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act was unanimously passed, seeking the restoration of MGNREGA to its original rights based form.
Calling it a deliberate and dangerous conspiracy, the Assembly had accused the BJP-led Central Government of "taking away" the livelihood of poor and Scheduled Caste labourers by dismantling MGNREGA.
The Assembly had urged the Centre to withdraw the legislation and continue providing guaranteed employment and wages to rural labourers under MGNREGA.
