Over two lakh ration cards, accounting for approximately 10 lakh beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS), have been struck off from official records since the beginning of 2021.
Broadly, there are only two reasons — deaths and outmigration. A majority of the beneficiaries have died with the rest moving out of Tamil Nadu.
In 2021 alone, around 2 lakh cards were cancelled and up to February this year, the number stood at 2,671 cards. The previous high with regard to the cancellation of ration cards was in 2018 when about 1.63 lakh cards were cancelled. At that time, a drive was carried out to identify duplicate cards following the adoption of the system of ‘smart family cards’ in April 2017. Then, end-to-end computerisation and seeding of Aadhaar numbers in PDS beneficiaries’ database were carried out, all of which led to the card cancellation.
This time, as part of the ‘data purity’ project, the authorities have been coordinating closely with those officials who have the data regarding the death of individuals. The Tamil Nadu e-governance Agency (TNeGA) is a key player in the exercise. Efforts are on to link the PDS beneficiaries’ database with live registers of death.
After 2018, for a few years, on an incremental basis, the cancellation took place. It was during 2021, that too later part of the year, that the project picked up momentum and after due verification of the persons who died, the cancellation of cards was effected.
A senior official clarifies that the cards cancelled last year were not necessarily related to those who died in 2021. Only in the last six months or so, the process of data sharing improved tremendously among government departments and agencies.
Asked about the applicability of the scheme of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ for those who have migrated out of Tamil Nadu, another official replies that the scheme is meant for those who have been covered under the National Food Security Act. In other words, only those identified as Priority Household (PHH) cardholders can avail themselves of benefits of the scheme.
As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, out of 2.13 crore ration cards, about 1.11 crore cards come under the PHH cards with the balance being non-PHH cards. As per the 2017 rules, while preparing lists of PHH, those families having at least one member as income tax payer, having an air-conditioner, owning a car or having an annual income of ₹1 lakh will all have to be excluded.
Meanwhile, according to a reply furnished by Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Niranjan Jyoti in Lok Sabha last week on the country-wide status of elimination of ineligible beneficiaries from the database after the Aadhaar seeding, about 3.04 lakh cards were removed in Tamil Nadu during 2014-17 with no deletion since 2018.
On the discrepancy in the data furnished by the Union government in Parliament vis-a-vis that of the State government, the official replies that the State government regularly updates the Centre of all the steps taken in connection with the cancellation of cards. Perhaps, the Union government has its own parameters to scrutinise the data before making them public, he said.
