Titled “Identity verification standard in welfare programmes: Experimental evidence from India”, the report says only around 12 per cent of the cancelled ration cards were “ghost” or fake. Most of these deaths were blamed on lack of ration cards or glitches in the public distribution system. The J-PAL study had a sample size of 3,901 households with ration cards, of which 213 were cancelled. This meant only 12.2 per cent of the cancelled cards were fake, and 87.8 per cent were genuine. “I opposed the cancellation of ration cards for lack of Aadhaar linkage and had demanded to know the exact number of cards cancelled and also the reason for which those were cancelled,” Roy said.

Source: The Telegraph February 20, 2020 22:07 UTC