During last 3 years, 1.29 crore ration cards were cancelled or deleted across India, Lok Sabha told

New Delhi: As many as 1.29 crore ration cards were deleted or cancelled by various states and union territories during the last three years, with Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra topping the list. The government also acted under the relevant clauses against approximately 20,000 fair price shops (FPS).

A total of 93,78,789 ration cards were cancelled or deleted in Uttar Pradesh in 2018 (43,72,491), 2019 (41,52,273) and 2020 (8,54,025) while in Maharashtra as many as 20,37,947 ration cards were cancelled or deleted with 12,81,922 in 2018, 6,53,677 in 2019 and 1,02,348 in 2020, Minister of State for Ministry of Rural Development and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Next in line to cancel and delete the ration cards were Madhya Pradesh (3,54,535), followed by Haryana (2,91,926), Punjab (2,87,474), Delhi (2,57,886) and Assam (1,70,057). The governments found it easy to weed out these many ration cards after action under NFSA Aadhaar seeding of ration cards ensured uniqueness of beneficiaries in Public Distribution System (PDS), avoiding duplicate/bogus ration cards/beneficiaries.

“So far, more than 92 per cent ration cards (at least one member of the household) have been Aadhaar seeded at the national level,” the Minister told in reply to a question by MP Nitesh Ganga Deb.