Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi announced that nearly 3 crore more ration cards can be issued to eligible beneficiaries after state governments removed 2.21 crore ineligible holders from PDS lists.
The deletions were carried out by state governments following their own criteria, not by the Centre, and were made possible by the digitisation of the public distribution system (PDS).
States have been permitted to add eligible beneficiaries, and Joshi noted that deletions have not been uniform across the country, with some states completing the exercise while others are yet to identify ineligible beneficiaries.
Currently, there are 79 crore beneficiaries in the country, and the target for distributing free foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana remains at 80 crore.
PDS digitisation has led to 98.5 per cent of foodgrains distributed under PMGKY being authenticated through Aadhaar numbers and ePoS machines.
New technologies are being deployed across PDS operations, including smart warehouses and depots, and the ministry is working towards a fully digital distribution system.
