What Is The One Nation One Ration Card Program?


In order to give all eligible beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, or holders of ration cards an option to access their entitlements from anywhere in India, the government introduced the One Nation One Ration Card.
 

One Nation One Ration Card Program’s Benefits, How It Works, And Its Progress

Under the NFSA, ration card holders or beneficiaries have the right to purchase subsidized food grains from the authorized Fair Price Shops (FPS) under the Targeted Public Distribution System, including rice at Rs. 3 per kg, wheat at Rs. 2 per kg, and coarse grains at Rs (TPDS).


What Is The One Nation One Ration Card Program?

Benefits:

Prior to the implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card system, holders of ration cards could only purchase the food grains that were subsidized from the FPS that were assigned to them in the locality where they resided. The ration cardholder/NFSA recipient was not qualified to receive subsidized food grains from an FPS in the relocated location if they moved from the assigned FPS location to another area for employment however with the implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card system, the restriction on purchasing food from only designated FPS was lifted, allowing NFSA beneficiaries and holders of ration cards to purchase the subsidized food from any FPS in the nation.
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The One Nation One Ration Card scheme also enables ration cardholders or NFSA beneficiaries to claim any remaining food on the same ration card for their family members back home. Part of the migrant workers' ration can be claimed from where they are when they are separated from their families, while the remaining portion can be claimed by their relatives back home.
 
The One Nation One Ration Card enables all NFSA recipients and holders of ration cards, in particular migrant recipients and holders of ration cards, to conveniently claim all or a portion of the food grains from any FPS located anywhere in the nation using an existing ration card with biometric or Aadhaar authentication. 
 

One Nation One Ration Card Implementation

The distribution of heavily subsidized food grains is made possible under the One Nation One Ration Card scheme by the portability of ration cards across the country. The establishment of an IT-driven system, which includes placing e-pos (Point of Sale) devices at FPSs, seeding Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries with their ration cards, and operationalizing biometrically authenticated e-pos transactions in the State/UTs, enables nationwide mobility. 
 
The ration card number or the Aadhaar number can be used by NFSA beneficiaries and holders of ration cards to purchase subsidized food grains from any FPS across the nation. For the purpose of receiving the subsidized food grains, there is no requirement to carry or share the ration card or Aadhaar card with the ration dealer. The NFSA beneficiaries/ration card holders can use their fingerprints or iris-based identification to submit to Aadhaar authentication in order to obtain the entitled food grains from any e-POS enabled FPS of their choice. 
 

One Nation, One Ration Card Development

It was originally planned to go nationwide on June 1, 2020. The One Nation One Ration Card plan's national portability of ration cards was enabled on August 1st, 2020, in an integrated cluster of 24 States and UTs, covering approximately 65 crore beneficiaries (80% of the total NFSA population) in these States and UTs. The Department of Food and Public Distribution also consistently worked to make One Nation One Ration Cards available in the remaining 12 States and UTs by March 2021.
 
While announcing the Union Budget 2021, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, stated that 32 States and UTs are implementing the One Nation One Ration Card, reaching around 69 crore beneficiaries. The Finance Minister added that 86% of the recipients were covered under the One Nation One Ration Card program. In the upcoming months, the remaining four States/UTs would be incorporated into this plan. 17 States and UTs had effectively implemented the NFSA's interstate mobility of ration cards as of March 11, 2021.    

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