51 lakh ineligible beneficiaries deleted from ration card database: Ranjeet Kumar Dass

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The massive drive by the State Government since May 2022 has led to the deletion of over 51 lakh ineligible beneficiaries from the ration card database. Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass informed the State Assembly of this on the third day of the Budget session today.

It was the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government that intensified the drive against ineligible beneficiaries of ration cards under the NFSA (National Food Security Act) of 2013). The prime aim of the government is to deny ineligible people the benefits under the NSFA in order to make them available for the eligible ones.

MLA Bharat Chandra Narah raised the issue through a written question in the State Assembly today.

The minister said in his reply, “According to the ration card management system, Assam has 56,29,106 cards with 1,98,13,011 beneficiaries as of March 4, 2023. As many as 55,66,303 of the 56,29,106 ration cards have Aadhaar seeding (98.88 percent), and 62,793 ration cards (1.12 percent) are yet Aadhaar seeded.”

Dass further said, “The Aadhaar seeding has helped the government delete the names of ineligible and dead persons from the ration card database. Of course, some people have surrendered their ration cards voluntarily after appeals from the government. The government’s drive against ineligible beneficiaries since May 1, 2022, has led to the deletion of 2,54,061 ration cards with 51,77,526 ineligible beneficiaries.”

Speaking to The Sentinel recently, Dass was on record as saying that the government was in a position to issue ration cards to around 40 lakh more beneficiaries, and the process would start from this Bohag.

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