Parliament Question: Adequacy of Foodgrain Coverage under the NFSA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2884 TO BE ANSWERED ON 5TH AUGUST, 2026 ADEQUACY OF FOODGRAIN COVERAGE UNDER THE NFSA

2884. DR. KIRSAN NAMDEO:

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased

to state:

(a) whether the Government has undertaken any assessment of the adequacy of fbodgrain coverage under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in view of population growth since the last Census and the increasing demand for subsidised foodgrains and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government proposes to revise the beneficiary coverage, update ration card databases and include eligible but excluded households under the Public Distribution System

(PDS);

(c) if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government to strengthen the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) system, improve grievance redressal, curb diversion of foodgrains and ensure doorstep availability offoodgrains to migrant workers and other vulnerable beneficiaries; and

(d) the details of beneficiaries added, deleted and verified under the NFSA and ONORC during the last three years along with the measures taken by the Government to improve transparency and efficiency in the Public Distribution System, State/UT-wise? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA)

(a) & (b): The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) is being successfully implemented in all the States/UTs. The Act provides for coverage of upto 75% of the rural and upto 50% of the urban population, which at Census 2011 comes to 81.35 crore persons. The Coverage under the Act is substantially high to ensure that all the vulnerable and needy sections of society get its benefit. The States/UTs have identified only 79.08 crore persons, against the intended coverage of 81.35 crore persons. Still, there is a scope for identification of 2.27 crore more beneficiaries by the States/ulrs, under the NFSAThe Central Government has issued advisories to all the States/Union Territories from time to time to identify all eligible and poor persons/ households, including vulnerable Sections of society, 6)r inclusion under the NFS A. States undertake updation of their beneficiary database so that bogus ration cards get deleted, and better targeting of rightful beneficiaries is ensured. Thus, deletion of ineligible beneficiaries and addition of eligible beneficiaries under the Act is a continuous process.

(c) & (d): The measures taken by the Government in respect of revision of beneficiary coverage, updation of ration card databases, inclusion of eligible beneficiaries, strengthening of ONOR.C, grievance redressal, transparency and related initiatives are as below:

i. Digitization & Aadhaar seeding: Ration cards/beneficiary database 100% digitized in all States/UTs; 99.7% of ration cards Aadhaar-seeded, eliminating ineligible/duplicate cards. ii. Transparency & grievance redressal: Transparency portals and online grievance redressal/toll- free helplines operational in all States/UTs.

iii. Online allocation & supply chain computerisation: Online allocation implemented in all States/UTs; supply chain computerised in 31 States/UTs (except Chandigarh, Puducherry and urban Dadra & Nagar Haveli, which have adopted DBT Cash Transfer).

iv. ePoS-based Aadhaar authentication at FPS level: 5.50 lakh (99.8%) of 5.51 lakh Fair Price Shops automated with ePoS devices, ensuring biometric authentication of beneficiaries at the point of distribution and curbing diversion.

v. One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC): Nationwide portability implemented across all 36 States/UTs, covering all PMGKAY beneficiaries; over 221 crore portability transactions recorded to date, reducing exclusion and duplicate entitlement claims.

vi. Rightful Targeting (RT): A dedicated de-duplication and beneficiary-verification exercise using Aadhaar/PDS data analytics has led to identification and deletion of ineligible/duplicate beneficiaries, with 5.95 Cr flagged beneficiaries (excluding landholding cases) and 2.35 Cr deleted beneficiaries. The State/UT-wise details of deleted beneficiaries through rightful targeting under the NFSA are placed at Annexure-I.vii. SMART-PDS reform initiative: Being implemented with modules for Ration Card Management, Distribution, Supply Chain and Grievance Redressal to further standardise and digitally integrate State-level TPDS operations.

viii. NIRVIAL & SAKSHAM: New initiatives under the SARTHAK PDS Umbrella Scheme (2026–31) aimed at strengthening data architecture/analytics (NIRMAL) and real-time data integration (including VLTS) from Procurement of food grains to Distribution to the beneficiaries (SaI<sham).

The State/UT-wise details of beneficiaries deleted through exercise of rightful targeting are at Annexure #####ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN PART (c) & (d) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2884 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 05.08.2026 REGARDING “ADEQUACY OF FOODGRAIN COVERAGE UNDER THE NFSA” Details of beneficiaries deleted on account of rightful targeting Number of beneficiaries S. No. Name of the States/UTs deleted 1 GUJARAT 15,58,704 2 MADHYA PRADESH 7, 1 8,968 3 CHHATTISGARH 2,09,940 4 ANDHRA PRADESH 6,3 1,849 RAJASTHAN 5 16,67,678 HARYANA 6 UTTAR PRADESH 7 31,21 ,226 8 LAKSHADWEEP 3,933 9 MAHARASHTRA 73.44.074 10 TRIPURA 52,204 KARNATAKA 11 4,44,756 12 BIHAR 17,68,896 KERALA 13 3,04,879 14 ODISHA 3,73,370 15 TELANGANA 1 ,62,229 16 PUNJAB a8 ANDAMAN AND NICOB AR 17 ISLANDS 137 18 JAMMU AND KASHMIR 43, 183 19 TAMIL NADU 2,56,877 20 ASSAM 1 3,00,72€ 21 JHARKHAND 7,84,020 22 CHANDIGARH 16,629 DADAR & NAGAR HAVELI 23 & DAMAN & DIU 24 WEST BENGAL 25 NAGALAND 17,022 26 LADAKH 677 27 MANIPUR 8,800 28 HIMACHAL PRADESH 36,992 29 DELHI 1 ,07,528 30 UTTARAKH AND 80,355 31 SIKKIM 4,734 32 GOA 3,247 33 PUDUCHERRY 1,217 34 MIZORAM 10,817 35 MEGHALAYA 2,071 36 ARUNACHAL PRADESH 27 Grand Total 2,34,55,907