Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has reviewed the progress of One Nation One Ration Card plan. While taking note of the requisite technical readiness of 4 more States/UT of Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand, the Department of Food & Public Distribution has enabled the integration of these 4 States/UT with existing 20 States/UTs for the National Portability.
Now, a total of 24 States and UTs are connected under One Nation One Ration Card from today. With this, about 65 crores (80%) of total NFSA population is now potentially enabled for receiving food grains anywhere in these States and UTs through national portability of ration cards.
The One Nation One Ration Card is an ambitious plan and endeavour of DoFPD, to ensure the delivery of food security entitlements to all beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), irrespective of their physical location anywhere in the country, by implementing nation-wide portability of ration cards under the ongoing central sector scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS)’ in association with all States and UTs.
NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place in search of temporary employments are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the country by using their same and existing ration card with Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale.
The 24 States and UTs who are included in one nation one ration card scheme are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.
(Source: PIB)
