More than 14 lakh workers and over 8 lakh Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job cards have been deleted in Punjab over the past five years. This has been done as part of a nationwide exercise to weed out ineligible and duplicate beneficiaries, official data submitted in the Lok Sabha has revealed.Between 2021 and 2026, 14.05 lakh workers were removed from the MGNREGA database in Punjab, while 8.04 lakh job cards were cancelled. The deletions followed periodic verification drives undertaken by the state’s Rural Development Department and the Centre to ensure the accuracy of beneficiary records and curb irregularities.The exercise has coincided with a sharp decline in the demand for work under the rural employment scheme. The number of households seeking employment under MGNREGA has fallen from 6.46 lakh in 2025-26 to 3.02 lakh in 2026-27, indicating both a shrinking beneficiary base and reduced dependence on the scheme.Officials in the government attribute the large-scale deletions to multiple factors, including the removal of duplicate and fake job cards, deletion of deceased beneficiaries, beneficiaries opting out after securing regular employment and cancellation of cards that remained inactive for prolonged periods.The mandatory Aadhaar-based authentication and periodic verification of records have also led to the identification of ineligible beneficiaries. In several cases, entire job cards were deleted after all registered members were found to be ineligible or no longer residing in the village. The decline in work demand has also been linked to improved employment opportunities outside the scheme, particularly in agriculture, construction and allied sectors, besides tighter scrutiny of applications.Meanwhile, the Punjab Government has begun implementing VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat Gram Governance), the Centre’s digital governance initiative aimed at strengthening rural administration and improving the delivery of government services at the village level. Officials believe the initiative will also help maintain proper beneficiary databases under schemes such as MGNREGA through proper verification and data integration.With the beneficiary base shrinking and digital verification becoming more stringent, officials say the focus of the rural job guarantee scheme is now shifting to ensure that benefits reach only eligible rural households while improving the quality of assets built under the scheme.