NAVVNEET DUBEY
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir saw around 1.5 lakh ration cards deleted between 2021 and 2025, according to data presented by the Union Government in the Lok Sabha. The figures form part of the state-wise and year-wise data on ration cards deleted under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), placed before Parliament a few days back. The government said the deletions covered the last five years, with the data provided separately for each state and Union Territory. Jammu and Kashmir is listed separately in the annexure along with Ladakh and other states and UTs.
Responding to a question on whether beneficiaries faced exclusion because of biometric authentication failures or digital verification problems, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said no such instances had been reported to the department from Maharashtra.
The government said multiple authentication options, including fingerprint, iris and Aadhaar-based OTP, have been provided under the public distribution system. It added that other eligible family members can authenticate if one member’s authentication fails, while a nominee facility is available in exceptional cases.
The ministry also said e-PoS machines can operate in offline mode in areas with limited or no internet connectivity and that states have been advised not to deny subsidised foodgrains to genuine beneficiaries because of authentication, connectivity, technical or biometric issues.
The Union Government’s data presented in Parliament covered deletions across all States and UTs between 2021 and 2025. The exercise is part of the Centre’s larger push for transparency and plugging leakages in the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The government further said it conducted a concurrent evaluation of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana during 2025-26 to strengthen monitoring and assess implementation of the food security programme.
Meanwhile in another written reply to an unstarred question, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said India currently has 20,57,81,055 active ration cards under the public distribution system. Of these, 16.57 lakh are in Jammu and Kashmir, while neighbouring Ladakh has 28,105 active ration cards.
The Ministry stated that 4,767 ration cards were deleted in Jammu and Kashmir during 2024, with the number falling to 3,036 in 2025. In Ladakh, 615 ration cards were deleted in 2024 and 764 in 2025, according to the data placed before Parliament.
The Centre clarified that under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the responsibility for identifying eligible beneficiaries and maintaining beneficiary databases lies with the respective State Governments and Union Territory administrations. It said ration cards are generally cancelled due to duplicate or ineligible beneficiaries, e-KYC mismatches, deaths, and permanent migration of households.
However, the Ministry emphasised that no ration cards have been reported to have been cancelled solely due to failure to complete e-KYC or Aadhaar authentication. The government further informed the House that no specific reports or complaints regarding the wrongful cancellation of ration cards have been receive
