Odisha’s Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister, Krushna Chandra Patra, announced on Friday that there are over 4 lakh ghost ration card holders in the state.
He shared with the media that each district has between 100,000 to 150,000 ghost beneficiaries. “The eKYC process revealed that every district holds approximately 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh ghost ration card holders. Currently, we have identified more than 40 lakh such cases,” Patra stated.
He added that the eKYC process is ongoing and will take additional days to complete. This Aadhaar-based e-KYC verification is being carried out for the 2024-25 period to enhance transparency in the beneficiary list under Odisha’s food security scheme. According to official figures, there have been 619,836 applications for new ration cards submitted under this scheme. The Odisha government has set 10 criteria for the enrollment and distribution of new ration cards.
In the meantime, efforts are already in progress to remove ghost ration card holders and add eligible beneficiaries in the state. Earlier in November, Patra noted that out of 33,635,918 PDS beneficiaries, e-KYC verification has been finalized for 26,923,830, resulting in the deletion of 177,068 ghost ration card holders from the list.
