Hundreds in Maharashtra received PDS recovery notices under Mission Sudhar
Hundreds of people in Maharashtra were surprised to get recovery notices in September 2026, telling them to pay back for subsidized food grains they received under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Many had their names deleted from the PDS beneficiary list for reasons like, in one case, a tractor being registered in a laborer's name, as part of the government's Mission Sudhar drive to weed out ineligible beneficiaries.
Maharashtra accounts for more than 7.5 million of the 17.7 million ration cardholders flagged by the Centre.
Maharashtra guidelines revised, recoveries halted
The move has faced heat for ignoring a high court ruling and using outdated income limits that don't reflect today's reality.
Tushar Zende Patil, president of Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, said, "The income limits prescribed by the government are unreasonable and are based on parameters decided three decades ago,"
while supply inspector Lahu Jadhav said, "In the absence of clear instructions from the government, we had issued notices to people whose names had been deleted from the list of beneficiaries. However, following the complaints we received, the guidelines have been revised, and we have decided not to recover money from the beneficiaries."
Mahesh Dhawale, chairman of the Maharashtra State Food Commission, wrote to the state government urging it not to recover money from beneficiaries and to consider splitting ration cards in such cases, especially since many families' incomes change over time.