India, Feb. 12 -- In a special verification drive, the Maharashtra government's food and civil supplies department has deleted over 7.5 million names from the list of beneficiaries of free food-grain schemes after the Centre flagged 17.8 million ration-card holders as potentially ineligible for exceeding the income limit, officials aware of the developments said.

Using data collated from eight departments-including the income tax department, transport authorities and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)-as well as schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), the Centre prepared and shared a list of beneficiaries suspected of being ineligible for free food grains, officials said.

The Centre left it to...