India, Oct. 23 -- The Department of Food and Public Distribution has flagged the use of ration cards for identifying families under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, saying the practice can create operational difficulties and effectively make the document compulsory for beneficiaries.

In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary in September, the department highlighted the issue of ration cards being used to establish family identity under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), even though they are not a formal eligibility criterion for the scheme, a government official said.

"We have only informed the Cabinet Secretariat that the ration card is not an eligibility criterion," the official said, adding that t...