What is “one nation, one ration card”?

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the press in New Delhi on Thursday. (Express photo: Anil Sharma)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday the national launch of a ‘A nation’s system, a ration card in all Union states and territories by March 2021. As of now, about 20 states have joined to implement interstate ration card portability.

According to the Minister of Finance, this system will allow migrant workers and their families to access PDS benefits from any fair-price store in the country.

What is the “One Nation, One Ration Card” system?

In accordance with the 2013 National Food Security Law, around 81 million people have the right to buy subsidized food grains: rice at Rs 3 / kg, wheat at Rs 2 / kg and coarse grains at Re 1 / kg – in their Public Directed Distribution System (TPDS) designated Fair Price Stores (FPS).

Currently, some 23 crore ration cards have been issued to nearly 80 million crore NFSA recipients in all states and UT.

In the current system, a ration card holder can purchase food grains only from an FPS that has been assigned to him in the locality in which he lives. However, this will change once the “One Nation, One Ration Card” system becomes operational nationwide. This is how it will work:

Suppose a beneficiary lives in the Basti district in Uttar Pradesh and migrates to Mumbai to work. Currently, you can no longer buy subsidized food grains at a PDS store in your new town in Mumbai. However, under the “One Nation, One Ration Card” system, the beneficiary will be able to purchase subsidized food grains from any FPS across the country.

The new system, based on a technological solution, will identify a beneficiary through biometric authentication in electronic point of sale (ePoS) devices installed in the FPS, and will allow that person to buy the quantity of food grains from which they have right under the NFSA.

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How will the ration card portability system work?

Portability of ration cards aims to provide interstate and interstate portability of ration cards.

While the portal of the Integrated Public Distribution Management System (IM-PDS) (http://www.impds.nic.in/) provides the technological platform for interstate portability of ration cards, allowing a worker migrant buy food grains in any FPS across the country, the other portal (annavitran.nic.in) hosts food grain distribution data through E-PoS devices within a state.

The Annavitran portal allows a migrant worker or family to take advantage of PDS benefits outside of their district but within their state. While a person can buy their share of food grains as they are entitled under the NFSA, wherever they are, the rest of their family members can buy subsidized food grains from their home ration dealer.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the national launch of a “one nation, one ration card” system in all Union states and territories in March 2020. (Express photo: Anil Sharma)

Since when are you working on One Nation, One Ration Card System?

Work on this ambitious project began about two years ago when the government launched a scheme called the Integrated Public Distribution Management System (IM-PDS) in April 2018 to reform the public distribution system in the country.

The PDS system was marred by the inefficiency that led to leaks in the system. To plug the leaks and improve the system, the government began the reform process.

For this purpose, it used a technological solution that involves the use of Aadhaar to identify the beneficiaries. Under the scheme, distribution of ration cards with Aadhaar is beginning.

Simultaneously, PoS machines are being installed in all FPS across the country. Once 100% of Aadhaar’s seeding is accomplished and 100% of PoS devices are installed, national portability of ration cards will become a reality.

It will allow migrant workers to purchase food grains from any FPS using their existing / same ration card.

People line up in front of a PDS point of sale in the Behrampur area of ​​Ahmedabad as the Gujarat government distributes free rations amid the national closure due to COVID-19. (Express photo: Javed Raja)

How many states have joined together to deploy interstate portability of ration cards?

Initially, it was proposed to implement the “One Nation, One Ration Card” scheme nationwide by June 1, 2020.

So far 17 states and UT: Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu: have teamed up to deploy interstate portability of ration cards under the NFSA.

Three other states, Odisha, Mizoram, and Nagaland, are expected to join by June 1, bringing the number of States and UT to 20 under the One Nation Card System, Once Ration.

What has the ration card portability experience been like so far?

The interstate ration card portability facility is available in 20 states as of now, but the number of transactions conducted through this facility has been low so far.

According to the data available on the IMPDS portal, only 275 transactions have been made until May 14. However, the number of in-state ration card portability transactions is quite high.

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Data available on the Annavitaran portal shows that around a rupee million transaction was made last month using the facility. It means that in-state ration card portability uses are much higher than interstate portability.

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