Mizoram, Odisha, and Sikkim became the latest states to have joined the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme.
With these, the number of states and union territories (UTs) to have joined the scheme rose to 20, informed union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday.
Paswan further informed that by August Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur will also be added to the list.
Speaking on the occasion Paswan said, “Three more states were included to the national cluster of ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ initiative.”
“Our aim is to implement the facility across the country by March ’21,” he added.
Adding further he said, “Necessary infrastructure work like upgrading electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) software, integration with central Integrated Management of PDS (IM-PDS) and Annavitran portals, availability of ration cards/beneficiaries data in the central repository and requisite testing of national portability transactions, required for ration card portability has. been completed in these three states.”
The other 17 states and UTs where ration card portability has been enabled are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
Under the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ initiative makes the beneficiaries eligible to avail their entitled food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card.