NEW DELHI: The government has identified around 5.6 lakh beneficiaries under the food security scheme who are more than 100 years old while conducting a verification through e-KYC. While informing the Rajya Sabha about this astonishing data on Tuesday, food and consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi also highlighted that over 30.6 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards have been issued to the poorest families with only one member.
Sources said the exercise carried out by the food department also found that, as per Aadhaar data, nearly 34 lakh beneficiaries of the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna (PMGKAY) have died. TOI has learnt that around 45 lakh AAY ration cards have been issued to families that have only two members and there were 33.2 lakh duplicate beneficiaries as well. Moreover, around 2.2 crore beneficiaries were in the ‘silent ration card’ category, which meant that they did not avail ration for 3-12 months.
Replying to a question from BJD’s Niranjan Bishi on the e-KYC of PMGKAY beneficiaries, Joshi said govt has so far completed this exercise for 74% of the total 80 crore beneficiaries. While under PMGKAY, each beneficiary gets 5 kg free foodgrain per month, families covered under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) get 35 kg each. Joshi said in these cases families having a single member is entitled to 35 kg free foodgrain per month.
The minister also said that the e-KYC exercise carried out by his department using IT and AI showed that around 2.1 lakh ration cards have been issued to families having a single member below 18 years. He added that there have been several cases of duplicate beneficiaries as well. “We have shared the details with states so that they can take out the ineligible beneficiaries and add deserving ones,” Joshi said.
He added that state govts are empowered to issue ration cards and they can set the criteria within the ceiling limit. As per govt data, while naerly 81.4 crore are eligible for getting free food grain, currently 80.6 have been enrolled. Joshi said states can add 80 lakh beneficiaries as on today.
Citing World Bank data which claimed that 13-25 crore people have come out from multi-dimensional poverty in the past nine years, Joshi said the states need to verify the beneficiaries so that people who really need free grains are not deprived.
