Fact Check: Claim of 95,040 ration cards being cancelled in Telangana’s Medchal−Malkajgiri district is false

Hyderabad: Since the formation of the Congress government in Telangana, there has been a buzz on social media that old ration cards will be cancelled in the state and registration for the new ones will be announced soon.

On January 4, an X premium account, Telugu Scribe, claimed that 95,040 ration cards in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district were cancelled, and people in other districts are worried about the cancellation.

The account tweeted these numbers regarding cancellations in different mandals: “Cancellation of 95,040 ration cards in Medchal district. People are worried. A total of 95,040 white ration cards were cancelled in the Medchal district. While in Bachupalli Mandal - 2,378, Ghat Kesar - 2,273, Capra - 2,263, Keesara - 3388, Medchal - 2,306, Medipally - 4,165, Samirpet - 893, Thiruchinthalapally - 3,208 ration cards were cancelled. 39,270 cards were cancelled in Uppal Municipal Circle and 35,210 in Balanagar Municipal Circle. People are worried about the possibility of cancellation of ration cards in other districts, too. (Translated from Telugu)”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. Uttam Kumar Reddy, minister for Irrigation, Food and Civil Supplies in Telangana government clarified on X that the claim of cancellation of ration cards is false.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, commenting on the post by Telugu Scribe, tagged Uttam Kumar Reddy asking him to confirm if the news is true. Reddy replied to it and denied cancelling ration cards in Telangana. He replied, “Asad, this news of the cancellation of ration cards is totally false. Let me assure you, not one single ration card has been cancelled anywhere in the state by our Government.”

We further ran a relevant keyword search but did not come across any news reports from national or Telangana-based news organisations which reported about the cancellation of ration cards in the Medchal−Malkajgiri district or any other areas.

NewsMeter reached out to Vijaylakshmi, the district supply officer of the Medchal−Malkajgiri district, who confirmed that the claim was false. When presented with the data tweeted by Telugu Scribe on the number of ration cards allegedly cancelled in different mandals, she said, “They have not cancelled a single ration card, and they will have to find out from where these numbers are being brought up.”

MK Rathod, the district supply officer of Ranga Reddy district, speaking to NewsMeter, also confirmed that the claim of cancellation of ration cards is false. On being asked if they have received instruction regarding the updation or cancellation of ration cards in future, he said, “The State government is currently working on six guarantees promised by the Congress party before the polls, and there has been no policy decision on ration cards.”

Hence, we conclude that the claim that 95,040 ration cards were cancelled in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district in Telangana is false.