Aadhaar linking with ration card deadline extended till 31st March 2022

On December 20, 2021, the Department of Food and Public Distribution extended the deadline for seeding Aadhaar cards with ration cards to March 31, 2022.

Previously, in 2017, a notification was issued directing all eligible beneficiaries entitled to receive subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act 2013 [NFSA], who do not have an Aadhaar number or are not yet enrolled for Aadhaar, but are desirous of receiving the subsidised foodgrains, to apply for Aadhaar enrolment by September 30, 2019, and also linking Aadhaar with Ration Cards/Beneficiaries to ensure correct identification of beneficiaries and their rightful delivery of subsidized foodgrains under NFSA.

It was also clarified that no beneficiary or household will be removed from the list of eligible beneficiaries/ households solely because they do not have an Aadhaar number, and that no beneficiary or household will be denied subsidised foodgrains or cash transfers of food subsidy under the NFSA due to biometric/Aadhaar authentication failure due to network/ connectivity/ linking issues/ poor biometric of the beneficiary or other technical reasons.