Entire India Will Have One Ration Card: One Nation, One Ration Card Will Go Live From June, 2020 (How Will It Work?)

As per the news coming in, the Centre has designed a standard format for ration cards as it moves ahead with ‘one nation, one ration card’ initiative.

On Tuesday, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that The government‘s ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ initiative that will largely cover migrant labourers and daily wagers will come into force across the country from June 1, 2020.

One Nation One Ration Card: The Vision

According to reports, a standard format for ration card has been prepared after taking into account the format used by different states.

The center has asked the state governments to follow the pattern while issuing fresh ration cards.

Under the ‘One nation, one ration card’ initiative,  the government wants to implement this facility across the country from 1 June 2020.

Moreover, the government is working on ‘One Nation One Standard’ initiative to harmonise standardisation activity.

Implementastion Of  ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’?

As of now, the central government’s ambitious initiative is being implemented on a pilot basis in a cluster of six states. They are planning to implement this facility across the country from June 1, 2020.

After this implementation, the services would be provided after biometric/Aadhaar authentication on ePoS (electronic Point of Sale) devices, Paswan, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, told the Lok Sabha.

He also mentioned that the facility of inter-state portability under the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ initiative would be available only through the FPSs having fully online ePoS devices.

Advantages Of  ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ ?

Under the  ‘One nation, one ration card’ initiative, the eligible beneficiaries would be able to avail their entitled foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card.

While talking about this scheme, a senior Food Ministry official said “In order to achieve the aim of national portability, it is necessary that ration cards issued by different states and union territories conform to a standard format. Accordingly, a format for standardised ration card has been prepared for issue of ration card under the NFSA,”.

Apart from these advantages, a set of another two digits will be appended with ration card number to create unique member IDs for each member of the household in a ration card, as informed by the official.(Reference)

Following the official data, around 75 crore beneficiaries have been covered so far against the target of 81.35 crore under the NFSA.

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