One Nation One Ration Card Scheme

The government introduced the One Nation One Ration Card to give all eligible ration cards or beneficiaries covered by the National Food Security Act (NFSA) of 2013 the option of accessing their entitlements from any location in India.

In accordance with the National Food Security Act (NFSA), ration cardholders or beneficiaries are entitled to purchase subsidised food grains such as rice at Rs.3 per kg, wheat at Rs.2 per kg, and coarse grains at Rs.1 per kg from designated Fair Price Shops (FPS) under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Read out the entire article to learn About the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme and its impact on the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme.

Impact of the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme

A ration card bearer could only purchase subsidized food grains from the Food Processing Station (FPS) that had been allotted to them in the locality where they lived prior to the introduction of the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.

NFSA beneficiaries and ration card holders who relocated for employment from their designated FPS location to another place were ineligible to receive subsidized food grains from an FPS in the new location, according to the NFSA.

NFSA beneficiaries/ration cards can now purchase subsidized food grains from any FPS in the country, thanks to the implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card system, which removed the requirement of purchasing food grains from only their allocated Food Processing Station.

Family members of NFSA recipients or ration cards who live in their native country can also claim the remaining food grains on the same ration card under the One Nation One Ration Card system. Migrant workers who are separated from their families can claim a portion of their ration from their current location, while their relatives in their home country can claim the remainder of their ration from their home country.

Using an existing ration card with biometric or Aadhaar authentication, the One Nation One Ration Card allows all NFSA beneficiaries/ration cardholders, particularly migrant NFSA beneficiaries/ration cardholders, to claim either whole or part of their foodgrains from any Food Processing Station (FPS) located anywhere in the country in a seamless manner.

Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card 

The portability of ration cards across the country is a key feature of the One Nation One Ration Card system, which allows for the delivery of heavily subsidized food grains throughout the country. Implementing an IT-driven system, such as seeding Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries with their ration cards, installing electronic point of sale devices in food processing establishments, and operationalizing biometrically authenticated electronic point of sale transactions in the states/UTs, makes it possible to achieve nationwide portability of ration cards.

Beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and holders of ration cards can present their ration card number or Aadhaar number to any FPS dealer across the country in order to acquire the subsidized foodgrains. It is not necessary to carry or share the ration card or Aadhaar card with the ration dealer in order to benefit from the subsidised food grains provided by the government. Ration cardholders who are NFSA beneficiaries can use their fingerprints or iris-based identification to authenticate their Aadhaar cards in order to get the foodgrains they are entitled to from any e-POS enabled food processing stores of their choice.

Key Points of the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme

The One Nation One Ration Card programme was originally scheduled to begin nationwide on June 1, 2020. National ration card mobility under the One Nation, One Ration Card plan will begin on August 1, 2020, in an integrated cluster of 24 States/UTs that covers an area of about 60,000 square miles. In these States and UTs, there are 65 million beneficiaries (or 80% of the entire NFSA population).

Additional efforts were made by the Department of Food and Public Distribution to implement the One Nation One Ration Card in all 12 States/UTs by March 2021.

She is Finance Minister, Smt. While announcing the Union Budget for 2021, Nirmala Sitharaman said that 32 States and UTs had implemented the One Nation One Ration Card, reaching around 69 million beneficiaries.

One Nation One Ration Card had 86 percent of beneficiaries covered, according to the Finance Minister. In the coming months, this plan will be expanded to include the four remaining States/UTs. In accordance with the NFSA, 17 states and territories were able to implement the interstate transferability of ration cards as of March 11, 2021.

Conclusion

Workers, daily wagers, urban poor such as rag pickers, street dwellers, temporary workers in both organized and unorganized sectors, domestic workers, and other workers can purchase their daily quota of food grains from any electronic point of sale (e-PoS) location of their choice anywhere in the country under the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ initiative and they had great impact of the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme. The ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ concept is one of four citizen-centric changes identified by the Union finance ministry’s department of expenditure, which falls under the Union finance ministry. This is the best scheme that has been implemented by the government, and a lot of people are benefited from this. From the above article now you must have known about the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme.