Parliament Question: Beneficiaries under NFSA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA M[NISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1962 TO BE ANSWERED ON IOTll MARCH, 2026 BENEFICIARIES UNDER tVFSA 1962 SHRI TI RUC HI S 1V A : Will thc Minister of C'onsunlcr Affairs. Food and Public Distribution be pieased to state (a-): the detdils of number of NFS A beneficiaries added and remo\-ed. State-u-ise ,Ind )-ear- \\’ise for the last fi\'e years: (h') : whether 2.25 crore beneficiaries \vere removed from the bcnenciary list i'ccentl\': (C): if so. the details thereof. State-\\-ise along with the reasons for removal : (d): \vhcther individuals holding positions in Farmer Producer Organisations u-cre considered 'company directors' for the purpose of NFSA beneficiary list: and (e): if so, the reasons therefor'? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA) (a) to (c): As an outcome of the use of technology in Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) operations, i.e., digitization of ration cards/beneficiary databases, Aadhaar seeding, de-duplication process, identification of duplicates, ineligible records, deaths, permanent migration of beneficiaries, etc. all States/UTs have been able to weed-out approx. 2.25 crore ration cards between 2021 to 2025 (till date) in order to achieve rightful targeting. A statement showing deleted Ration Cards is at Annexure. This exercise flagged approximate 8.51 Crore beneficiaries (2024 to 2025) and list of these flagged beneficiaries were shared with the respective State/UTs for conducting field verification and to take necessary action as deemed fit on these cases. Till date, the respective States/UTs have deleted 2.21 Crore beneficiaries of the above flagged beneficiaries, thus making space for eligible waitlisted beneficiaries.(d) & (e): Under the Rightful Targeting initiative, the Department has integrated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) database to identify NFS A beneficiaries who are listed as company directors. Such cases were flagged and shared with the respective States/UTs only for field-level verification. States/UTs have been specifically advised that these flagged cases do not constitute automatic exclusion from the NFS A beneficiary list. They have been instructed to carefully examine such cases to ensure that farmers serving as directors in Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are not wrongly excluded from the list of eligible beneficiaries. ####8Annel(ure States/UTs-wise deleted Ration Cards (2021-25) St. State/UT 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025(till date I /mr a3 U2 U9 50,681 2 196 950 47 512 102 Ficobar Islands 3 r 5 328 268 1,128 4 ms 11,120 28,590 38,590 ,61 ,516 24,381 5 mI a5 ,61 ,809 4,49,525 6,86,266 1 ,49,043 6 I 684 2,29 1 207 2,401 7 I 10,400 no U9 a7 HO a 8 IHaveti & Daman & 2,454 73 I 151 1,101 Diu 9 m Me 448 116 3,686 6 1 ,292 al 10 805 2,117 5,801 166 11 Ul ,32,519 1 ,35,362 30,889 12 ,96, 174 8,49,972 3 ,28,557 13,43,474 13 r B5 U9 U 9 ,61') a4 a 14 33,677 2,927 5,403 4,767 3,036 IKashmir FlaTm 15 75,137 29,77 6,374 67,730 16 ma 42,558 48,477 74.40 1 27, 105 50,594 17 me 41 ,998 40,800 11,555 7,26 1 18 ma 614 30A-- 615 764 19 [FaQ:ma 33 38 89 88 32 20 a [mMm U9 98, 1 86 4,96,092 7,04,848 2,60,285 21 Wii a4 2,0 1 ,676 + 1 ,74,342 1 ,33 ,469 22 9,684 7,215 6,5 1 5 23 a 1,612 L 449 102 laRa 24 a6 3,617 4,115 2,548 742 [IRa 25 Fm 3,428 3,924 1 ,347 26 mt ii 64, 122 19,420 1 ,21 , 134 27 1,731 538 898 763 28 m bl s [@3, ®305 I 1 ,52,497 1 ,23,722 2,290 29 Mi 2,65,390 26,386 6,05,826 30 458 a 2,116 31 a 2,00,942 86, 150 73,875 63,905 33,339 32me 4,988 34,064 3,424 1 ,40,947 33 mr 1 , 100 1 ,254 800 467 4,334 34 I 7,19,213 9,99,100 7,00,138 8,41 , 123 5,97,012 35 a 49,712 66,627 9,69 1 4,589 3,014 36 s11 2,93,326 6,47,003 7,56,860 5,09,952 3,74,5 1 9 29,02,794 63,80,274 1 48,85,259 41,41,385