Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Assam government has made e-KYC verification mandatory for all beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and warned that ration cards without completed verification may be removed from the beneficiary database.
The move follows directives from the Government of India and instructions of the Supreme Court to ensure 100 per cent e-KYC authentication of all NFSA beneficiaries in the state.
According to public notices issued by all district commissioners in the state, all ration card holders who have not yet completed their e-KYC must visit their nearest Fair Price Shop (FPS) and complete the process through the ePoS machine available there at the earliest. Moreover, ration card holders who fail to complete e-KYC verification may face deletion from the NFSA beneficiary list, which could affect their access to subsidised food grains under the public distribution system.
The state government has urged all beneficiaries to complete the verification process immediately to avoid removal of their names from the ration card database.
For any assistance regarding the process, beneficiaries have been advised to contact their nearest FPS dealer or authorised agent.
Official sources said there are a total of 70,33,972 ration cards under the NFSA in Assam, covering 2,44,94,885 beneficiaries. Out of this total number of beneficiaries, e-KYC has been completed for 2,07,38,508 beneficiaries, which comes to 84.7 per cent covered, as of January 2026.
The Assam government deleted 2,64,197 ration cards over the past five years, with the highest single-year deletions recorded in 2024 at 1,61,516 cards.
The breakdown of ration card deletions in Assam over the five-year period is as follows: 11,120 in 2021; 28,590 in 2022; 38,590 in 2023; 1,61,516 in 2024; and 24,381 in 2025.
The key objectives of ration card e-KYC: (i) Identity Verification: Confirming that the person collecting rations is the actual, eligible cardholder; (ii) Fraud Prevention: Stopping diversion of food grains and eliminating ghost/duplicate beneficiaries; and (iii) Transparency & Efficiency: Making the public distribution system more transparent and streamlined.
Also Read: 2,525 New NFSA Ration Cards Distributed Across Five Assembly Constituencies in Sonitpur District