The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which was conducted to cleanse the voting list in Bihar, is now being used by the state government to remove ineligible beneficiaries from the public distribution list as well. Following this massive exercise, more than 5.5 lakh names were removed from Bihar’s ration card list after a large-scale verification process.
As per reports from the Bihar government, the state has about 1.79 crore ration card holders. The number of ration cards referred during the verification process is 8,19,888. Out of those cards, 5,57,278 were considered to be deleted, and 2,59,197 were retained. Bihar Food and Consumer Protection Minister Ashok Choudhary said that 97.56% of the verification process has been completed.
How the verification was carried out
The cleanup exercise was linked to data collected during the SIR process and a Centre-led cross-verification drive that began in 2025. Information from voter list revisions, local field checks and government databases was matched to identify beneficiaries who were no longer eligible for subsidised food grains.
Officials said names were removed mainly due to death, long-term migration, duplication of records, non-completion of mandatory KYC and failure to meet income eligibility conditions. Earlier reports on the SIR exercise had shown that deaths, migration and duplicate entries accounted for nearly 99% of voter deletions in Bihar.
A senior official said that information gathered during door-to-door verification of ration card holders is now being shared across government departments. If a person is found to have died, permanently moved away or become ineligible, that information is passed on to the Food and Consumer Protection Department for further action.
Districts with the highest deletions
It has been found from government records that the maximum number of ration card cancellations was recorded in Muzaffarpur (32,360), Patna (32,626), Araria (17,439) and Bhagalpur (11,931). In order to make the entire process more transparent, sub-divisional magistrates across all 38 districts have reportedly been instructed to display lists of cancelled ration cards.
People who believe their names have been removed wrongly can approach the concerned Sub-Divisional Officer or Magistrate and seek a review. A PDS dealer from Banka district said that around 400 names were deleted from a beneficiary list of nearly 3,000 people in his area. He said dealers have only been asked to display the lists, while appeals will be handled by local administrative authorities.
Part of a wider cleansing drive
The BJP-led Bihar government has described the exercise as a campaign to remove bogus and ineligible beneficiaries from welfare schemes. At present, the effort is focused mainly on ration cards.
The verification drive comes after a Centre-ordered review of nearly 20 crore ration card holders across the country. The exercise reportedly found 94.71 lakh income taxpayers, 17.51 lakh owners of four-wheelers and 5.31 lakh company directors receiving benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). States were subsequently asked to conduct field verification and remove those who did not qualify.
Among Bihar’s ration card holders, around 22.93 lakh people fall under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana category, which provides 35 kg of food grains every month to the poorest families. Officials say the ongoing verification is aimed at ensuring that such benefits reach only genuine and eligible beneficiaries.
