New Delhi: The Delhi government has revised the annual income limit for ration card applications, increasing it from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh, in a move to widen the ambit of the public distribution system for subsidised food grains, officials said on Friday.
The Delhi Food Security (Amendment) Rules, 2026 were notified on July 13 by the Food Supply and Consumer Affairs department of the Delhi government.
According to the amendment in Rule 3 in DFS (Amendment) Rules, "The households having annual family income up to Rs 2.5 lakh will be considered as eligible households for inclusion in the priority household category."
The previous annual family income limit was Rs 1.2 lakh. The department has already started the process for submission of fresh applications for ration cards. The process, which began in May is still underway but the numbers have been sluggish due to lack of clarity over income criterion.
"Now, the application submission is expected to speed up since the annual income limit has been more than doubled, meaning everyone earning over Rs 25,000 and fulfilling other criteria, will be eligible for having ration cards," a senior Delhi government officer said.
A large scale ration card verification drive was launched by the government to weed out ineligible beneficiaries.
More than 2.3 lakh ration cards were cancelled as the beneficiaries were found in violation of the eligibilities.
According to officials, verification revealed there were around 1.44 lakh beneficiaries whose annual income exceeded the prescribed limit, 35,800 cardholders had not been drawing their monthly ration, 29,580 beneficiaries had died but continued to remain on the rolls, and there were 23,394 duplicate ration cards.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta earlier announced that the Delhi government will issue 2 lakh fresh ration cards this year.
