Tripura Ration Cards Face Three-Month e-KYC Deadline From October 1: Families Risk Losing Benefits If Verification Is Not Completed

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, September 30, 2026

The Tripura Government has announced a major verification drive for ration-card beneficiaries under the SMART-PDS system, beginning October 1, 2026, with the stated objective of identifying inactive and duplicate beneficiaries and ensuring that ration reaches genuine eligible households.

However, the announcement also puts a three-month deadline on beneficiaries to complete e-KYC verification, raising concerns about possible difficulties for families who may struggle to complete the process within the stipulated period.

According to a notification issued by the Directorate of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, ration cards on which no ration has been lifted for six consecutive months will be identified as “silent ration cards” and will be made temporarily inactive. During this period, ration allocation against such cards will remain suspended.

The department has stated that all members of the concerned ration card must establish their eligibility through e-KYC within three months. If the required verification is not completed within that period, the ration card may be permanently deleted from the system.

The three-month e-KYC requirement is likely to be the most significant part of the new exercise for ordinary beneficiaries. A family whose ration card has remained unused for six months will not simply have its ration supply restored automatically. The family will have to complete the prescribed verification process within the stipulated period to establish its eligibility.

This could create difficulties particularly for beneficiaries who have not been regularly collecting ration because of migration, illness, employment outside their locality, family circumstances, or other reasons, even though they may still consider the ration card valid and important.

The notification does not say that every ration-card holder in Tripura will have to undergo a completely new eligibility determination. Rather, the exercise is specifically aimed at silent cards and suspected duplicate beneficiaries, with e-KYC being used for verification.

The department has also announced Aadhaar-based verification to identify cases where the same person appears as a beneficiary on more than one ration card.

If a person is found registered as a beneficiary on multiple ration cards, the duplicate entry will be identified. The concerned individual will then have three months to complete e-KYC.

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