The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday made it clear that no new order has been issued in the state regarding the surrender or cancellation of ration cards.

Refuting the misleading and false reports circulated in this regard in certain sections of the media, State Food Commissioner Saurav Babu said that ration card verification was a normal process that took place from time to time. He said, “the baseless reports are being circulated regarding the surrender of ration card and new eligibility conditions.”

He further clarified that the eligibility/ineligibility criterion of household ration cards was ascertained vide GO dated October 07, 2014, and no new changes were made since then.

He also said that no cardholder could be declared ineligible on the basis of having a pucca house under the government scheme, electricity connection, sole weapon license holder, motorcycle owner, poultry/cow rearing. ” Similarly, as per the National Food Security Act-2013 and other prevailing mandates, no provision of recovery from ineligible cardholders has been prescribed and no instructions have been issued from the government level or from the Food Commissioner’s office regarding recovery, ” he said.

The department always issues new ration cards to the eligible cardholders according to their eligibility and from April 1, 2020, till now, a total of 29.53 lakh new ration cards have been issued by the department to the eligible beneficiaries in the state.