Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 3: J&K has deleted nearly 50,000 ration cards over the past five years as part of a nationwide verification of beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), the Union Government informed the Lok Sabha today.
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The figures were shared in a written reply by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
According to the Ministry, J&K removed 33,677 ration cards in 2021, 2,927 in 2022, 5,403 in 2023, 4,767 in 2024, and 3,036 in 2025 (till date), taking the total deletions to 49,810.
In the Union Territory of Ladakh, 614 ration cards were deleted in 2021, 30 in 2022, 58 in 2023, 615 in 2024, and 764 in 2025 so far – bringing the total deletions in Ladakh to 2,081.
The exercise followed directions to States and Union Territories to carry out field verification based on anomalies flagged during a massive data-analytics project undertaken by the Department of Food and Public Distribution in 2024-25.
The analytics exercise-using Aadhaar, CBDT, MoRTH, MCA and CBIC databases-identified about 8.51 crore suspect beneficiaries across the country, the Government said.
These included individuals aged over 100 years, duplicate ration card holders, “silent” ration cards with no transactions, and single-member ration cards registered under minors.
The Ministry said States and UTs were tasked with physically verifying these flagged records and removing ineligible names.
So far, Governments across India have deleted 2.12 crore such beneficiaries from their systems.
The reply further noted that technological interventions such as digitisation of ration cards, Aadhaar seeding, de-duplication, and tracking deaths or permanent migration helped States weed out nearly 2.25 crore ration cards between 2021 and 2025.
These measures, the Government said, aim to ensure rightful targeting of subsidised foodgrain distribution under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
While the Centre allocates foodgrains under PMGKAY and the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the identification of eligible families, issuance of ration cards, and oversight of Fair Price Shops remain the responsibility of State and Union Territory administrations, including J&K and Ladakh.
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