33 lakh likely to lose free ration in Punjab over missed eKYC deadline

Over 33 lakh beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act are likely to be debarred from getting free wheat from July as they have failed to complete their eKYC authentication by the deadline.

These beneficiaries risk losing their entitlement to free wheat as per the orders of the Centre, which had given the May 31 deadline for completing the eKYC.

The move to get biometrics and Aadhaar linked to ration cards (via eKYC) aims at weeding out the ineligible beneficiaries.

A meeting of all district food and supplies controllers was held on May 20 where they were told to ensure that the free wheat for July-September period was distributed to only those families whose heads had completed their eKYC authentication. Additionally, the officers were also told to remove the names of beneficiaries who had already died.

A senior official in the Food and Supplies Department told The Tribune that the process to complete the eKYC authentication was underway. Authentication has been completed for 78.90 per cent beneficiaries out of total 1.59 crore listed under the NFSA under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

“We have got the eKYC done for 1.25 crore beneficiaries. The authentication of another 11,952 beneficiaries is under progress. We want to ensure that only eligible beneficiaries get the free ration,” he said. Sufficient time was given to all beneficiaries to get their eKYC done on the ePOS machines installed at all 2,000 ration depots in the state, he added.

The state government ordered for a physical verification of beneficiaries under the NFSA in 2022. Lakhs of listed beneficiaries were not found eligible then. However, that created a politico-social storm, as many beneficiaries, who were not present at their homes during the physical verification drive, were listed as “ineligible”. It was then decided to use the eKYC authentication data as the benchmark to decide the eligibility of beneficiaries.