The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has raised with the Union Food Ministry the issue of Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) directors resigning after receiving notices requiring them to prove their eligibility for ration cards under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
In a letter to Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra on August 25, Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi urged him to issue “necessary directions” to state food departments so that directors of FPOs registered under the government schemes be verified on “merits”.
The agriculture ministry’s move came after The Indian Express reported on August 25 that the Centre’s directive to states to verify ration card holders — using a list it has prepared by matching details of beneficiaries with databases of taxpayers, car owners and company directors — has sparked concern among FPO directors/members, prompting some to consider resigning from their positions.
In his letter to Chopra, Chaturvedi wrote, “Instances have come to notice where field functionaries are sending notices/show cause to farmers, who are Board of Directors [BoD] of FPO registered under Company Act for cancellation of ration cards. There have been instances, ration cards have been cancelled only on the pretext of farmers being members of Board, without ascertaining about their eligibility as per guidelines. As a result, BoD of FPOs are resigning from the FPO Board in order to safeguard their ration card. It is imperative that if otherwise eligible for holding a Ration Card, the FPO BODs may be verified as local farmers/FPO Director and not mechanically removed from RCMS database.”
Chaturvedi further requested that “necessary directions” be issued to the state Food Department “that Directors of FPOs registered under government schemes be verified on merits”. This, Chaturvedi wrote, “will safeguard genuine beneficiaries from wrongful exclusion and uphold the objectives of both the PDS and the FPO promotion scheme”.
Chopra had written to chief secretaries of all states and advisors to the Union Territory (UT) administrators on July 8, informing them about the matching of the ration card management system (RCMS) data with databases of various entities, including the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and PM-Kisan.
He wrote that the Food Department has identified a set of beneficiaries who appear in one or more of the above databases and may not qualify as per the eligibility norms prescribed by respective states/UTs.
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“As you are aware, the responsibility for identification of beneficiaries rests with the state government. You are, therefore, requested to kindly undertake necessary field verification of such flagged cases and initiate appropriate action for data cleansing, wherever ineligibility is established. This exercise is critical to ensure that the resources under TPDS [Targeted Public Distribution System] are directed only towards the eligible households,” wrote Chopra, urging the states to complete the verification exercise by September 30, 2025.
As reported by The Indian Express on August 20, in this cross-verification exercise, the Department of Food and Public Distribution found that 94.71 lakh ration card holders are taxpayers, 17.51 lakh are owners of four-wheelers, and another 5.36 lakh ration card holders are Director Identification Number holders, or directors/members in companies.
