The Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan recently reviewed the progress made towards the implementation of “One Nation One Ration Card” plan and while taking note of the requisite technical readiness of another 2 Union Territories of Ladakh and Lakshadweep, approved the integration of these 2 UTs with existing national portability cluster of 24 States/UTs.

Both the UTs have completed the trial and testing of national portability transactions with other States/UTs in national cluster. With this, a total of 26 States/UTs are now seamlessly connected with each other under the One Nation One Ration Card plan and migratory PDS beneficiaries in these 26 States/UTs can access their subsidised foodgrains at the same Scale and Central Issue Prices from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice w.e.f. 1^st September 2020.

A total of more than 65 Crore beneficiaries (i.e. 80% of total NFSA population) in the following 26 States/UTs, namely – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, are now potentially enabled with an option to lift their subsidised foodgrains through One Nation One Ration Card system. Remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.

The ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ plan is an ambitious endeavour of the Government 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/UTs.

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 foodgrains 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.

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APS/SG/MS