New Delhi, May 9 -- The Delhi government has found that more than 5,600 of its employees are wrongfully registered as beneficiaries for free and subsidised ration under the Public Distribution System (PDS), a scheme only meant for households whose annual income is less than Rs.1 lakh, according to officials aware of the matter. Action has now been ordered against these employees, the officials said. The employees are from various departments of the Delhi government such as food and civil supplies, and revenue, and are being paid salaries by the Delhi government. The alleged misconduct came to the notice of the government only in April during an analysis of records by the IT department to create a unified data hub. Most of these government employees belong to Group D, said an official in IT department aware of the matter, asking not to be named. Group D employees refer to the lowest category of government workers in terms of rank and pay scale. However, officials said that for how long these employees have been registered under the scheme, and whether they were availing the benefits is not known. An internal inquiry has been initiated to uncover these details, they said. A food department official said government employees cannot get ration cards made under NFS Act 2013, in Delhi. Besides, people who have four-wheelers in a family, have a government servant in their family, or whose annual income is above Rs.1 lakh cannot get a ration card made because it is against the rules. The circle officers of the food department are verifying records and cancelling ration cards belonging to such families. "On preliminary analysis of the F&S (food supplies and consumer affairs), PAO (principal accounts office) and revenue records, it is observed that records of around 5,621 beneficiaries under F&S match with PAO records of employees of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, and among these a total of 395 beneficiaries are available as head of family in ration card records," the department of IT said in a communication to the head of the food supplies and consumer affairs department on April 4. A food department official said that the ration cards of at least 1,567 of these employees have been cancelled so far. "The deletion process will be completed by the end of this month by following due procedure," said the official, wishing not to be named. It is also being checked if any of the identified employees got their ration cards made before joining government services, said the official. At present, Delhi has a total of 7.2 million registered beneficiaries for availing of subsidised ration under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. The government of India has fixed as 7,277,995 beneficiaries for Delhi....