Adding four more states, 24 states in the country get linked to 'One Nation One Ration Card'

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday, reviewed the progress of 'One Nation One Ration Card' plan implementation throughout the country. As four new states complete technical requirements, they have also been linked to the scheme. These four states are UT of Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand.
With the addition of these four states, now 24 states across the country are connected with the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme. “About 80% of total National Food Security Act are now,” Paswan told ET. “Remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.”

The One Nation One Ration Card has been an ambitious plan of the Modi Government and union minister Paswan has been proactively following the implementation of the scheme for the smooth delivery of food grains. The plan aims 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.

The distribution of ration had become an issue during the lockdown when migrant workers didn’t have ration cards in the states they were staying.

Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments, etc. 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/existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the FPSs.

The government had first implemented the scheme as a pilot project in four states in 2019. From January 2020, the scheme was implemented in 12 states across the country.

The timely implementation of the scheme helped the government to effectively deliver food grains under PM Garib Kalyan Yojna announced till November 2020.