AHMEDABAD: In a major update, the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution informed the Rajya Sabha that 8,15,734 ration cards were cancelled in Gujarat between 2013 and 2024. The cancellations were part of nationwide reforms leveraging technology in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). The Congress party has raised concerns, alleging that the tribal communities in Gujarat have been unfairly impacted.
The government attributes the deletion of ration cards to digitization and other processes, Aadhaar seeding, and de-duplication processes, which helped identify duplicate entries, ineligible records, deaths, and cases of permanent migration.
Highlighting the impact of these reforms, the Minister stated that a total of 5.87 crore ration cards have been weeded out across all states and union territories during the period to ensure rightful targeting of beneficiaries.
The Government also said “To ensure that genuine beneficiaries are not affected, states and UTs have been advised to conduct thorough verification, including field checks, for every identified case."
"Additionally, the government emphasised that states and UTs continuously issue new ration cards to eligible households in place of cancelled ones, adhering to the ceiling limits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). These efforts aim to ensure rightful targeting of subsidized food grains.”
Gujarat Congress MLA Anant Patel has accused the state government of wrongly removing tribal ration cards.
"In Gujarat’s tribal areas, government officials previously misled the people into obtaining Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards," Patel claimed. He detailed an instance in a tribal village where 200 out of 300 cards were issued as BPL.
"However, during a check, corrupt officials, fearing consequences, deleted the cards of those genuinely entitled to them."
Patel further alleged that, under the guise of digitalization, the government has removed nearly 50,000 tribal ration cards in Gujarat.
"Most of these tribals are uneducated, with no knowledge of how to appeal," he said, criticizing the government's handling of the issue.
The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution informed the Rajya Sabha that 80.67 crore people are currently receiving free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
The Minister further highlighted the significant progress in Aadhaar integration, stating that 99.8% of ration cards under PMGKAY have been seeded with the Aadhaar number of at least one member of the beneficiary household.