The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ms. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today informed that the States/UTs have completed the Aadhaar seeding of about 21.91 Crore (92.8%) ration cards and 70.94 Crore (90%) NFSA beneficiaries at the national level. While nearly 4.98 Lakh (92.7%) FPS in the country are having ePoS devices up to 23/07/2021.

Under the ONORC plan, presently an average of about 1.5 Crore portability transactions are recorded on a monthly basis, which accounts for only about 10% of total Public Distribution System (PDS) transactions happening in the country. Further, a high number of intra-State (within State/UT) transactions are seen consistently and the under the PDS reforms, most of the States/UTs have computerized their supply chain management of foodgrains. Further, with respect to inter-State portability transactions, a central system is facilitating the periodic reconciliation and adjustment of foodgrains distributed by States/UTs to migrant NFSA beneficiaries of other States/UTs through the inter-State portability transactions.

Since its inception in August 2019, more than 29 Crore portability transactions have been recorded under the ONORC plan up to June 2021. However, the number of migrant beneficiaries who had benefitted through these portability transactions could be much more as any member of the beneficiary household can lift the foodgrains on behalf of the entire household through one or more transactions.

The One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan, for nation-wide portability of the National Food Security Act 2013 (NFSA) benefits, is presently enabled in 33 States/UTs covering almost 86.7% NFSA population (about 69 Crore NFSA beneficiaries) in the country. Delhi being the latest to enable the same from July 2021. Further, the Department has regularly pursued with the remaining 3 States of Chhattisgarh, Assam and West Bengal to enable the ONORC at the earliest depending upon their technical readiness to implement the portability of ration cards.

State/UT wise percentage of Aadhaar seeding with Ration Card/Beneficiaries and FPS automation

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DJN/NS