How One Nation One Ration Card will benefit the migrant workers?
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday that the country will adopt “One Nation One Ration Card” system soon. As of now, 20 states have come on board and implemented the inter-state ration card portability. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that now the migrant workers and their family members will be able to access the PDS benefits in any corner of the country from the Fair Price Shop.
What is One Nation One Ration Card System?
As per the National Food Security Act, 2013, more than 80 crore people in India are entitled to buy subsidized foodgrains – wheat at Rs 2/kg, rice at Rs 3/kg, and coarse grains at Re 1/kg from their designated Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TDPS). Currently, there are 23 crore ration card holders in the country which benefits nearly 80 crore people in the various states and union territories.
The present ration card system allows the cardholder to buy foodgrains only from the FPS that is assigned to her locality in which the person lives. With One Nation One Ration Card system, the person would be able to buy foodgrains across the nation.
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Suppose a beneficiary who lived in the Muzzafarpur of Bihar migrated to New Delhi for work. He was buying foodgrains from the FPS in Muzzafarpur but when he reached New Delhi, his ration card didn’t allow him to buy subsidized foodgrains in New Delhi FPS. With One Nation One Ration Card system, he would be able to avail the subsidized rate of wheat, rice and more from any FPS in the country.
How the Ration Card Will work?
Based on the technological solution, the new system will identify a beneficiary via biometric authentication on electronic Point of Sale devices installed at the Fair Price Shop and enable the beneficiary to buy the foodgrains which he/she is entitled under NFSA.
Ration card portability is aimed to provide inter-state as well as intra-state portability of ration cards. The Inter Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) portal, www.impds.nic.in, avails the technological platform for the inter-state portability of ration cards. The other government portal, annavitran.nic.in, hosts the data of the distribution of foodgrains within a state through E-PoS devices.
The Annavitran portal allows the beneficiary to avail the subsidized foodgrains outside their district but within their state. While the migrant can buy his/her share of foodgrains wherever the beneficiary is based, the rest of his/her family can avail their quota of subsidized foodgrains from the nearby ration shops back home.
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