Bhubaneswar: As many as 16,27,920 numbers of deaths and ineligible cases have been deleted from the list of ration card beneficiaries in Odisha since 2016-17, informed Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra in the Legislative Assembly while replying to a question by MLA Sofia Firdous.

"Since 2016-17 till date, State Government have deleted 16,27,920 numbers of deaths and ineligible cases from the database and have accommodated left-out new eligible beneficiaries against the arising vacancies. The inclusion and deletion process is dynamic," the minister said.

"The State Government have recently started conducting Aadhaar e-KYC of all members in a ration card which will sanitize the database," the minister added.