New Delhi, Four more States and UTs were linked with One Nation One Ration Card scheme on Saturday, and with this about 80 per cent of total the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) population is now enabled to receive food grains in 24 States/UTs through national portability of ration cards. 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 Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand, the Department of Food & Public Distribution has enabled the integration of these four States and UTs with existing 20 for the National Portability. With this, now a total of 24 States and UTs are connected under One Nation One Ration Card with effect from August 1, according to a statement here on Saturday. These 24 States/UTs are namely 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. With this, about 65 crores — 80 per cent — of total NFSA population is now potentially enabled for receiving food grains anywhere in these States through national portability of ration cards. The remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.
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 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/UTs. Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop of their choice anywhere in the country by using their same of existing ration card with biometric or Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the FPSs. BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda in his tweet congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and minister Ram Vilas Paswan ”as 3 more States Manipur, Nagaland & Uttrakhand & UT Jammu & Kashmir also joined OneNationOneRationCard.””This ensures food security to 65 Crore people in 24 States with the aim to cover the whole nation by 31st March 2021,” he said in his missive.