RTI Reveals Aadhaar Card did not remove 3.95 Crore Fake Ration Cards

RTI Reveals Aadhaar Card did not remove 3.95 Crore Fake Ration Cards
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the last session of Parliament Lower House, on February 7, made a statement that 3.95 crore “fake ration cards” were deleted in the last two-and-a-half years with the help of technology and Aadhaar.

Modi had told the House that due to cancelled ration cards in the previous two-and-half years, Rs 14,000 crore meant for the poor but consumed by the middlemen is now back into the mainstream and sent to the poor.

Activists for food security and transparency told media that there is no evidence to back the Prime Minister’s claim, as neither is the information available publicly, nor were the relevant authorities able to provide it under the Right to Information.

Anjali Bhardwaj, economist and anti-corruption and transparency activist, filed an RTI request with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking state-wise break-up of 4 crore ration cards that were found fake, as Modi had stated.

The PMO forwarded this to the Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD), which claimed that the state-wise list is available on the department’s website and forwarded the request for details to each state

Anjali Bhardwaj told media that DFPD website has the total number of ration cards that have been deleted since 2006. The list was updated on February 16, 2016. The total number of “bogus/ineligible” ration cards deleted during this period was 626.82 lakh. The figure pertains to a decade, rather than the two-and-a-half-period mentioned by Modi, and predates Aadhaar.


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Did Aadhaar help weed out nearly 4 crore fake ration cards? RTI activist contests Govt’s claim


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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

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