Mumbai, Mar 8 (IANS): Maharashtra has a total of 2.56 crore ration-card holders, including 1.71 crore saffron, 62.60 lakh yellow and the rest 22.21 lakh white ration card holders, till December 2022.

During the current fiscal, till December 2022, of the total eligible 1.54 crore ration cards covered under the National Food Security Act, the Aadhaar seeding of 99.9 per cent has been completed.

Of the total eligible 8.66 lakh ration cards under the Above Poverty Line farmers from the drought-prone 14 districts, the Aadhaar seeding of 99.9 per cent has been done.

In 2022-2023, ration kits worth Rs 100/kit comprising 1 kg each of suji, chana dal, sugar and palm oil were distributed under the AAntodaya Anna Yojana to various categories of ration card holders in Diwali 2022.

The government has installed ePoint of Sale (ePoS) devices at 2,532 ration shops (Fair Price Shops) for distribution of foodgrains and till December 2022, 1.62 crore families availed ration with the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication.

Till November 2022, a total of 1,543 Shivbhojan Thali centres functioned in the state and around 12.22 crore Shivbhojan thalis were distributed to the poor and needy at heavily subsidised rates.

From the launch of 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme, till December 2022, 39,000 card holders from the state lifted foodgrains in other states while 2.13 lakh card holders from other states took foodgrains from Maharashtra.