Assam Deleted 2.64 Lakh Ration Cards in Five Years, Highest in 2024 at 1.61 Lakh

The Assam government deleted 2,64,197 ration cards issued under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, over the past five years, with the highest single-year deletions recorded in 2024 at 1,61,516 cards.

The figures were disclosed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday by Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya, in response to a question from MP Tiruchi Siva.

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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 minister said the deletions were driven by the use of technology in Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) operations, including digitisation of ration card databases, Aadhaar seeding, de-duplication processes, and the identification of duplicate entries, ineligible records, deceased beneficiaries, and those who had permanently migrated.

Nationally, all states and Union Territories together weeded out approximately 2.25 crore ration cards between 2021 and 2025 as part of the rightful targeting initiative.

The minister further informed the House that the exercise flagged approximately 8.51 crore beneficiaries between 2024 and 2025. A list of these flagged beneficiaries was shared with respective states and UTs for field-level verification, and to date, 2.21 crore of those flagged beneficiaries have been deleted — creating space for eligible waitlisted beneficiaries to be included.

As part of the rightful targeting initiative, the department integrated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs database to identify NFSA beneficiaries listed as company directors. Such cases were flagged and sent to states for field verification.

However, the minister clarified that flagging does not constitute automatic exclusion, and states have been specifically instructed to ensure that farmers serving as directors in Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are not wrongly removed from the eligible beneficiary list.

In 2025 alone, 41,41,385 ration cards were deleted across the country.