One nation one ration card

Context

The Supreme Court asked West Bengal and all other state governments to immediately implement the ‘one nation one ration card’ scheme amid the Covid-19 pandemic to support the migrant workers.

About One Nation One Ration Card Scheme

• It is an important citizen-centric reform.
• Objective: Its implementation ensures the availability of ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially the migrant workers and their families, at any Fair Price Shop (FPS) across the country.
  • This technology-driven reform enables the migrant beneficiaries to get their entitled quota of food grains from any electronic point of sale (e-PoS) enabled fair Price Shops of their choice anywhere in the country.
• Implementation: The implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan comes under the Department of Food & Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
• Significance: It enables the States to better targeting beneficiaries, eliminate bogus/ duplicate/ineligible cardholders resulting in enhanced welfare and reduced leakage.
• Government efforts: For this theinstallation of electronic point of sale (e-PoS) devices are essential. Therefore, an additional borrowing limit of 0.25 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is allowed to the States only on completion of both of the following actions:
  • Aadhar Seeding of all the ration cards and beneficiaries in the State
  • Automation of all the FPSs in the State.
• Recently the free foodgrains will be given to the needy under ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), but it would cause problemsfor those who do not have ration cards.