In a case of lack of internal coordination within the Union government’s Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), the official website is providing a misleading picture about Tamil Nadu with regard to the extent of ration cards in circulation.
On the web portal that deals with the National Food Security Act (NFSA)’s coverage, there is one section, which pertains to ration cards, giving a State-wise account. There are two kinds of ration cards that are covered under NFSA – Priority Household (PHH) and the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards. In Tamil Nadu, according to one section of the website, nearly 85 % of these two categories of cards are ‘silent’ ration cards – those where entitlements have not be drawn for three months. Tamil Nadu, has 18,03,536 AAY cards and 95,57,198 PHH cards, totalling 1,13, 60,734 cards, of this, 16 lakh AAY cards and about 80.9 lakh PHH cards – are silent cards, as per the information available on that section.
On the contrary, the State has been witnessing a very high degree of ration card holders drawing their entitlements, especially rice.
Even on the face of it, the data appear bizarre, because the State has been witnessing a very high degree of ration card holders drawing their entitlements, especially rice. According to the latest food grains bulletin report prepared by the DFPD, the figures of off-take (in terms of percentage) against allocation for rice for the current year (April 2024- January 2025), were 91.75% for AAY and 109.5% for PHH. Consequent to this coupled with the demand from Non-PHH cards, the authorities in the State have been buying rice, at a high cost, from sources including the open market, only to provide at free of cost to the ration cardholders, regardless of the category of card.
In the same portal, there is a section dealing with the public distribution system (PDS), called Integrated Management of PDS (IMPDS). The page relating to Tamil Nadu, which provides slightly differing data when it comes to number of AAY and PHH cards in the State, gives the monthly figures of the number of ration cards that are in circulation. Under the head- “number of transacted ration cards,” the number of PHH cards is around 59.2 lakhs and AAY, 12.79 lakhs. It also refers to the numbers of inter-State and intra-State cards in use. The section also talks of the quantity of food grains distributed. As far as February is concerned, the volume of foodgrains distributed is close to 1.41 lakh tonnes, of which fortified rice accounts for 1.35 lakh tonnes.
When the discrepancy in the data was pointed out, a senior official of the Civil Supplies Department says that his department has taken up with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and underscored the need for presenting an accurate picture regarding the State.
