Bhubaneswar: Food and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra today informed the Assembly that the state government has not removed ration cards of eligible beneficiaries since June 2024 through e-KYC or any other survey.
Patra was responding to an adjournment motion moved by Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallik. He stated that the government has been distributing monthly food grains to 3 crore 27 lakh 83 thousand 673 members of 99 lakh 52 thousand 153 families under the National Food Security Act 2013 and the State Food Security Scheme.
The Minister explained that the process of surveying ration card data and identifying ineligible cardholders began earlier, and previous governments had cut off about 30.69 lakh members of 10.54 lakh families. The current government has started the e-KYC process from July 2024 to make ration card data transparent and include eligible applicants.
So far, e-KYC of 3 crore 12 lakh 43 thousand 219 beneficiaries (about 96%) has been completed. The deadline for e-KYC verification has been extended till December 31, 2025. During the process, 6,94,68,681 people have been excluded from the data, and deceased individuals have been identified and removed.
The government has received 15,33,153 applications for ration cards, and 6,39,827 members have been newly included in the Food Security Scheme. The state government has provided for 13,50,000 beneficiaries in rural areas and 1,50,000 in urban areas under the State Food Security Scheme.
Additionally, the government has increased the monthly income limit for eligible families and provided an extra 5 kg of rice per family per month free of cost for September, October, and November 2025.
