Govt refutes claim of cancellation of BPL ration cards

The Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs has strongly refuted reports that the J&K government has issued an order cancelling around 1.5 lakh Below Poverty Line ration cards affecting a huge number of beneficiaries and putting their families in distress.

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The department has termed the assertion totally fabricated and based on false assumptions.

As per the statement issued by the Department, no such order has been issued. Besides, it said the figure being quoted in the news reports does not even match the actual deletion figure of 1.27 lakh reported to the Parliament recently with regard to fake and duplicate ration cards deleted in J&K since 2013.

“These are in fact the deletions carried out in the past over 10 years in J&K as a part of reforms pursued by the Government of India across the country,” the statement read.

The statement added that elimination of bogus/duplicate ration cards and beneficiaries is an essential requirement under Targeted PDS Control Order of Government of India, which is now being established through technology interventions like Aadhaar seeding, eKYC and through field verification.

“As a result of accelerated Aadhaar seeding pursued by the Department, huge duplication of ration cards and beneficiaries was established leading to deletion of such ration cards and beneficiaries over the years. At the same time, bringing the left out eligible beneficiaries under the PDS cover has also been seriously pursued by the Department and this effort has also led to the addition of 8.6 lakh eligible beneficiaries to PDS in J&K since shifting to a dependable Ration Card Management System in September 2022,” it read.

Further, it clarified that only order issued by the Department in recent past in the context of PDS seeks inclusion of children born during years 2011 to 2016 in their family ration cards so that additional benefits flow to these beneficiaries and households as per eligibility under PDS. The Department has also issued explicit orders for prompt inclusion of any eligible beneficiary still left out under PDS, wherever reported. As a result of these efforts the number of beneficiaries under NFSA, who are provided free food grains every month, has gone up from 66.37 lakh to 66.59 lakh during the last three months.