हमने 2020 से 80+ करोड़ नागरिकों को मुफ़्त राशन दिया है। हम पीएम गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना के तहत अगले पाँच वर्ष तक मुफ़्त राशन देना जारी रखेंगे।

The 2024 manifesto's food promise is a continuation: "We have provided free ration to 80+ crore citizens since 2020. We will continue to provide free ration for the next five years under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana."

The continuation was already decided. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution told Parliament on 18 March 2026 that "The period for distribution of free of cost foodgrains has been extended for further five years i.e. from 1st January, 2024, with an estimated financial outlay of Rs. 11.80 lakh crore totally to be borne by Central Government." The Cabinet took that decision in November 2023, five months before the manifesto was published. Promising to continue something already approved for five years is not a hard promise to keep, and it is being kept.

Two things qualify the headline number, and both come from the same answer.

First, the count. The scheme "provides for coverage upto 75% of rural population and upto 50% of urban population… thus covering about 67% of the bottom population which at Census 2011 comes to 81.35 crore." That is the entitlement ceiling. Actual identification is lower: "against the intended coverage of 81.35 crore, the States/UTs have identified 79.40 crore person, which is about 97.60 per cent of the intended coverage… Still, there is a scope of identification of 1.95 crore more beneficiaries." Roughly two crore people who qualify have not been enrolled.

Second, and more consequential, the denominator has not moved since 2011. India's population has grown by roughly 20 crore since that census, and the National Food Security Act's coverage percentages are applied to 2011 population figures. The question this answer responds to asks specifically about "the specific measures being taken to update the beneficiary list in the absence of decennial census in line with recent judicial observations". The ministry's reply does not address the census gap at all; it says states are advised to identify eligible persons and that "deletion of ineligible beneficiaries and addition of eligible beneficiaries under the Act is a continuous process."

The delivery plumbing is in good order and reported precisely: the beneficiary database is "100% digitised across all States and Union Territories, with 99.7% ration cards Aadhaar-seeded", and e-KYC was complete for "87.37% of the PDS beneficiaries" as on 31 January 2026. The remaining 12.63 per cent matters — an incomplete e-KYC can mean a card suspended and a family without grain — and the answer does not say what happens to them.

One forward-looking line is worth recording: "At present, no proposal for extension of PMGKAY beyond 31 December 2028 is under consideration of the Government."

Our verdict is lacks context.