New Delhi: Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan informed Monday that three more states have joined the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme. Among them are Odisha while the two other states are Sikkim and Mizoram. Currently 20 states have joined the scheme, Ram Vilas Paswan stated. By August, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur will also be added to the national cluster, he added.
Advantage of ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme
The ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme has an advantage. Under the initiative, eligible beneficiaries would be able to avail their entitled foodgrain from anywhere in India. They can buy from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in India using the same ration card.
Paswan’s comments
The Food Ministry aims to implement this facility across the country by March 2021.
“Today three more states namely – Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have been included in the scheme,” Paswan said in a statement. “The necessary infrastructure work required for ration card portability has been completed in these states,” he added.
The infrastructure upgradation including electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) software, integration with central Integrated Management of PDS (IM-PDS) is done.
States with ration card portability
So far, ration card portability has been enabled in 17 states and UTs. They are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh. Among other states where portability is working are Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Tripura and UP.
“Constant efforts are being made by this department to expand the reach of national portability to the beneficiaries of other states/UTs,” Paswan informed. “This is being done with the cooperation of the states/UTs,” he added.
The Food Ministry is doing all necessary arrangements to include remaining 13 states and UTs to the national cluster. A central technical team has imparted the requisite orientation training to those who will work in facilitating the scheme.
Importance of Aadhaar card
Paswan also reiterated an important point. Ration cards which have recorded one Aadhaar authenticated transaction during the last six months shall be eligible for national portability transactions. This feature has been enabled through the central repository of ration cards/beneficiaries maintained by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Web services enabled
The requisite web-services for reporting of portability transaction details to the central dashboard are also enabled for these states. This has been enabled with immediate effect. The central NIC team will be continuously assisting state governments in seamless roll out of ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ plan.
Paswan asked the 20 states/UTs to commence national/inter-state portability transactions in June 2020. This will help beneficiaries take benefit of portability service with immediate effect.
PTI