Eldest woman to be head of household for ration card issuance under Delhi's new food security rules

The eldest female member of a family will be treated as the head of the household for issuing ration cards under the Delhi Food Security Rules, 2026, which was notified recently. The internal grievance redressal mechanism will involve three committees at the circle, district and state levels, to be headed by Food Supplies officials.

The eldest female member of a family will be treated as the head of the household for issuing ration cards under the Delhi Food Security Rules, 2026, which was notified recently. However, if the age of the sole female member in the family is below 18 years, the eldest male member shall be treated as the head. The quota of ration cards allowed for Delhi will be grouped district-wise in proportion to the total number of voters of the area, according to a gazette notification. The voter-basis criterion would be switched to Census-basis as and when the results of the ongoing population enumeration operations are released for formal usage. Also, the income criterion for issuing ration cards has been enhanced to Rs 1.2 lakh per annum from Rs 1 lakh earlier, under the rules notified by the Delhi government's Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs department. It has also institutionalised grievance redressal and vigilance mechanisms in the public distribution system (PDS) through multiple committees at district, ward and fair price shop levels. In the case of the death of a declared female head of the household, the eldest woman in the ration card of the family may apply to be declared as the new head, the notification states. Applications for ration cards will be dealt with by a committee constituted at the district level. The district magistrate (DM) or the additional DM concerned will head the committee that will include two local MLAs as its members. Besides the existing applications, the committee may also invite fresh applications from other ''poorest of the poor'' sections, the notification stated. Ration cards will not be issued to households owning buildings or land in A-E category colonies in Delhi, paying income tax, owning a four-wheeler, if any member is a government employee, or having a power connection above 2 KW. The internal grievance redressal mechanism will involve three committees at the circle, district and state levels, to be headed by Food Supplies officials. Under the external grievance redressal mechanism, the ADM concerned will serve as the district grievance redressal officer to deal with complaints of the PDS beneficiaries, stated the notification. A State Food Commission will deal with any complaint from anyone related to an order passed by the district grievance redressal officer. Members of Parliament and MLAs concerned will be members of the district and block-level vigilance committees, respectively. These will also include representatives of ration card holder groups, the notification added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)