Bihar government cancelled 40 Ration Cards.
Patna, September 11: The Bihar government has cancelled the Ration Cards of approximately 40 lakh individuals after irregularities were found during the E-KYC, an official said.
Such a move was taken after the Food Supply Department of the Bihar government initiated the E-KYC process to link Ration Cards with Aadhar Cards.
“In the process of E-KYC, the names of 40 lakh people were removed from the ration card. Those were either deceased or were fraudulently taking the benefits of the government schemes. Simultaneously, the names of 55 lakh new beneficiaries were added to the system,” said N Saravanan, secretary of the Food Supply Department, Bihar Government.
Saravanan said that 95% of the names on the ration cards have been linked to the Aadhaar card and E-KYC has been done for 61% of card holders. The rest of the cardholders’ E-KYC will take place soon.
He said that a large number of poor people in Bihar are being given free food grains under the Food Security Act. In August 2024, 89 lakh 39832 ration card holders received the benefit of food grains. Ration cards have been made available to 1.97 crore families within the state, out of which 22.88 lakh ration cards have been given under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana. 1.74 crore ration cards have been given to other needy people.
The Bihar government has taken action in response to numerous complaints regarding irregularities in the ration card scheme, which includes instances of fake Aadhar Cards and Ration Cards.
“We have been receiving complaints about the irregularities in this scheme. Hence, the department initiated an E-KYC process, requiring beneficiaries to visit designated offices for thumb impression verification. This measure aims to ensure that only eligible individuals receive benefits under the scheme,” Sarvanan said.
“During the E-KYC process, it appeared that some individuals had obtained fake documents to fraudulently claim government benefits. Additionally, beneficiaries working in other states can collect their Rations there. However, there are three states such as Himachal Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Puducherry where people of Bihar are not eligible to avail of the same facility,” he said.
Food Supply Minister of Bihar Government, Lesi Singh said that the department is providing quality foods to 8 crore 35 lakh people through 50185 public distribution system shops in the state. Each beneficiary is being provided 5 kg of food grains free of cost, which includes 1 kg of wheat and 4 kg of rice.
“Beneficiaries can take ration from any shop. There is no need to depend on any one shopkeeper,” Singh said.
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EOM.