Delhi Government Orders Cancellation of 179,825 Ineligible Ration Cards
The Delhi government has ordered the cancellation of 179,825 ration cards covering 745,107 beneficiaries across the capital after identifying them as ineligible or duplicate, officials announced on Monday. The decision follows a scrutiny exercise conducted by the Department of Food, Supplies and Consumer Affairs to clean up the public distribution system database.
According to an order issued by the department on July 22, the identified ration cards and beneficiaries will be cancelled or deleted from the database at the headquarters level. The drive aims to ensure that benefits under the National Food Security Act reach eligible households by removing inactive, deceased, duplicate, and high-income beneficiaries flagged across four categories on the department's dashboard.
The largest group affected includes 144,075 ration cards covering 647,473 beneficiaries whose family members had an annual income exceeding ₹6 lakh according to CBDT database records, making them ineligible for subsidised rations. Another 35,750 ration cards covering 97,634 beneficiaries were classified as "silent" and cancelled because no ration had been drawn against them for over 12 months.
In addition, the department directed the deletion of 25,378 individual beneficiaries across two other categories. These comprise 4,987 beneficiaries whose Aadhaar status was updated as deceased, and 20,391 duplicate beneficiaries who were found registered in another state.
This follows an earlier verification drive conducted this year that resulted in the cancellation of over 230,000 ration cards. That previous exercise identified 144,000 beneficiaries exceeding the income limit, 35,800 inactive cardholders, 29,580 deceased beneficiaries, and 23,394 duplicate cards. Delhi currently has 1.54 million active ration cards.
The government recently notified the Delhi Food Security (Amendment) Rules, 2026, raising the annual income limit for new ration cards from ₹1.20 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has announced that the administration will issue 200,000 fresh ration cards this year.
