One Nation One Card scheme: 3 more states included to help migrants; all states to be covered by March 31, 2021

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New Delhi: Three more states - Odisha, Sikkim, and Mizoram have now been included in One Nation One Card scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution System’ (IM-PDS) by the government on Monday (June 1), said an official statement. 

Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, "Under this system, nation-wide portability of the benefits under NFSA through “One Nation One Ration Card” plan is implemented to enable the NFSA ration card holders to lift their entitled quota of subsidised foodgrains from any ePoS enabled FPS of their choice anywhere in the country, by using the existing/same ration card after Aadhaar authentication on ePoS device."

Notably, the facility has so far been extended to 17 states/UTs, namely – 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. 

Further, constant efforts are being made by this Department of Food & Public Distribution to expand the reach of national portability to the beneficiaries of other states/UTs also in association with respective state/UT governments, The statement by the ministry said. 

It further said, "..necessary preparatory activities to integrate these three new states with the national cluster viz. upgradation of ePoS software, integration with central IM-PDS and Annavitran portals, availability of ration cards/beneficiaries data in Central Repository, requisite testing of national portability transactions has also been completed with the support of central NIC team." 

After completing all these arrangements, the national/ inter-state portability transactions under ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ plan has been enabled in these states w.e.f distribution month of June 2020," it said.

By August 2020 three more states namely - Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur will also be added to the national cluster. Department is doing all necessary arrangements to include remaining all 13 states namely - West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Delhi, J&K, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andaman&Nicobar and Lakshadweep island to the national cluster, it added. 

The ministry confirmed that by 31st March 2021 all states will be added to One Nation One Ration Card scheme and the scheme will be operational all over India.

The minister requested all these states to commence the national/ inter-state portability transactions in June 2020, adding "This would also enable the beneficiaries of these states anywhere in the national cluster of states/UTs to access their quota of foodgrains through national portability with immediate effect."