Staff Reporter
Guwahati: In the first four months of this year, over 11,000 ration cards in Assam were deleted (cancelled), and the cardholders were stopped from receiving items under the public distribution system (PDS). The cards consist of two types-Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH)-under the National Food Security Act.
The deletion of ration cards is a continuous process, and the authorities concerned examine the cards and delete those found ineligible. In December 2024, a deletion of ration cards was done in the state, and more than one lakh such cards were deleted from the system.
According to information made available by the Department of Public Distribution, Government of India, in the month of January 2025, 31 AAY ration cards and 889 PHH cards were deleted from the NFSA database in Assam.
In February, the number of ration cards deleted registered an increase in Assam. 228 AAY cards and 4692 PHH ration cards were deleted from the database.
Again, in March, a total of 91 cards under AAY and 1667 under PHH were cancelled.
In the ongoing month of April, the number of cards cancelled so far is 237 AAY and 3824 PHH ration cards.
Therefore, the total number of ration cards cancelled in four months works out to 11,659 under AAY and PHH categories.
In the last six months of 2024, altogether 1,42,328 ration cards were deleted from the NFSA database in Assam.
Currently, the total number of valid ration cards in the state is 70,43,399, involving 2,46,02,758 beneficiaries.
Sources revealed that one of the reasons for ration card deletion is that Aadhaar Card linkage was not done by some beneficiaries. Other reasons include ineligible beneficiaries who were availing themselves of the benefits, and some ration cardholders had expired, but the cards in their names continued to be active. After verification, the discrepancies were found out by the authorities concerned, and the cards were then deleted from the national database.
In the case of ineligible beneficiaries, it should be mentioned here that some had an income of over Rs 4 lakh, violating one of the criteria.
One of the benefits of having a ration card is that a member of the family who is a student intending to go for higher education can avail themselves of free admission into colleges in the state.
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