SRINAGAR: The Union Government has told the Lok Sabha that Jammu and Kashmir has deleted more than 2.7 lakh job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) since 2019, with Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan responding to a starred question raised by Lalji Verma and Sachithanantham R.
Responding to the detailed queries, the Minister said that job card deletions are a routine process carried out by States and UTs to remove fake, duplicate or incorrect entries, or those on families that have permanently migrated, deaths of single-member households, and villages that have been reclassified as urban. According to the data placed before the House, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 33,032 deletions in 2019-20, 94,078 in 2020-21, 37,635 in 2021-22, 38,388 in 2022-23, 73,015 in 2023-24, and 30,123 in 2024-25.
The Government’s figures show a fluctuating but significant pattern of worker deletions from MGNREGS job cards over five years. In 2019-20, a total of 92,619 workers were removed from the rolls. The number rose sharply in 2020-21 to 2,55,607, before dropping to 1,12,814 in 2021-22. The deletions dipped slightly again in 2022-23, when 1,07,120 workers were removed. The numbers climbed once more in 2023-24, reaching 2,12,281. Taken together, this amounts to 7,80,441 worker deletions in Jammu and Kashmir over the five years, forming part of the broader national trend of routine revisions carried out by States and Union Territories under the scheme.
In another detail, the government said between October 10, and November 14, 2025, a total of 79070 workers were deleted from the scheme.
The Minister said that while 4.57 crore job cards were deleted nationwide between 2019-20 and 2024-25, more than 6.54 crore new job cards were added in the same period. Between October 10 and November 14 this year, States and UTs removed workers from job cards but also added 10.84 lakh new workers during that period.
On the question regarding large-scale exclusions due to the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) and Aadhaar-based Payment System (APBS), the Minister clarified that job cards cannot be deleted on the basis of NMMS usage or non-linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar. NMMS was made compulsory from January 2023 to ensure transparency, while APBS was made mandatory from January 2024 to streamline wage disbursal.
The Government also informed the House that it issued a Standard Operating Procedure on January 25, 2025, laying down clear guidelines for both deletion and restoration of job cards. The SOP mandates the publication of draft deletion lists, verification by Gram Sabhas, rights of appeal for affected workers, and Aadhaar linking to eliminate duplicate entries. A grievance redressal mechanism exists within NREGASoft, along with other channels including CPGRAMS.
The Minister said that these measures were aimed at protecting genuine beneficiaries while preventing misuse, and ensuring that the MGNREGS continues to reach all eligible rural households across the country, including those in Jammu and Kashmir.
