India, March 19 -- A total of 4,08,107 ration cardholders have been removed from Odisha's database following an extensive eKYC verification drive, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra informed the Odisha Legislative Assembly.

The verification drive, launched in August-September 2024, aimed to identify and remove deceased individuals from the ration card database.

Responding to a query from Congress legislator from Barabati-Cuttack Sofia Firdous, Minister Patra revealed 23,138 ineligible ration cards, covering 87,844 members, were detected during field verification. These cards were removed based on the 10 exclusion criteria outlined in the Odisha State Food Security (Targeted) Rules, 2020.

In Barabati-Cutt...