Bhubaneswar, 24 September (H.S.)The Odisha government has removed the names of more than one lakh ineligible beneficiaries from the state’s ration card list, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra informed the State Assembly on Wednesday.

Responding to a question by MLA Tankadhar Tripathy, Minister Patra said that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and the State Food Security Scheme, around 97.40 lakh families, comprising 3.25 crore people, are currently receiving free food grains.

During ongoing verification exercises, 30,125 ineligible ration cards representing 1,09,853 members have been identified and deleted from the database. Additionally, the names of 6,38,996 deceased persons have also been removed, creating scope for including eligible new applicants.

Following the exclusions, 2,05,384 new families (3,87,819 members) have been added to the food security schemes. Currently, around 5,09,606 fresh applications are under field verification across the state.

Minister Patra noted that the government uses 10 exclusion criteria to identify ineligible ration card holders by cross-checking ration card details with other departmental databases. He added that names of deceased persons identified during e-KYC verification are being promptly removed to ensure the database remains clean and updated.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda