New Delhi, 27 August 2026: Shocking cases of fraud have come to light in the National Food Security Scheme, the country's largest welfare scheme. The rich businessmen and directors of companies paying taxes were taking advantage of the government grain which is the right of the poor and deprived people of the country. After data integration and in-depth investigation by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, 2.44 crore ineligible beneficiaries have been identified from across the country, who were usurping free ration from the poor for years. Now the government is going to exclude all these people from the scheme, which will lead to direct savings of about Rs 5,800 crore to the government treasury in the current financial year.
The government provides ration of approximately Rs 200 per person every month (Rs 2,400 per person annually). Removal of 2.44 crore ineligible beneficiaries will result in an estimated annual saving of food subsidy of Rs 5,856 crore. In the last financial year, Rs 6,700 crore was saved by eliminating 2.77 crore fake and ineligible beneficiaries. The biggest benefit from this will be that the space in the ration card quota will be freed up, so that the real needy poor families who have been standing in the queue for years can be linked to this scheme. Currently, the government is giving free ration to approximately 78 crore people across the country under this law.
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Fraud network exposed in data investigation
The ministry had cross-verified the data of about 4.5 crore beneficiaries considered doubtful with the databases of Income Tax, GST Network, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Transport Department. After this strict investigation, 2.44 crore beneficiaries have been directly proved ineligible. This list is now being handed over to the respective state governments, and after final verification at the local level, their ration cards will be cancelled.
These ineligible beneficiaries include 1,58,16,217 people who had not taken ration for months. Apart from this, 56,22,619 income tax payers, 7,21,343 GST payers, 2,76,544 government employees, 2,42,313 directors of companies, 2,07,970 four-wheeler (car) owners, 3,01,978 people whose age was above 100, 10,77,631 people who were Two had different ration cards, and there were 1,13,094 beneficiaries who were below 18 years of age but were availing the benefits illegally.