“One nation-one ration card” scheme in whole country by June 30: Paswan

June 29, 2019

New Delhi: The Government is going to implement “One nation-one ration card” scheme in the whole country within a year, by June 30, 2010.

The work on linking all the ration cards all over the country with Aadhar cards and organizing food grain distributionmechanism in its entirety throughPoint of Sale (PoS) machine is in the final sta Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan said at a news conference here on Saturday.

Currently Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura are 10 states where 100% POS machines have been arranged for grain distribution and all PDS shops have been connected to the Internet. Now, in these states any beneficiary can take grain from any public distribution system shop in that state.

Paswan said arrangements are being made to ensure that by August 15, 2019, beneficiaries of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra will be able to take ration from anywhere in both states.

The Minister said work is in the final stage for integrating the entire public distribution system with the Depots online system (DOS) to ensure seamless working of the National Food Security Act and bringing further transparency in the storage and distribution process of food grains.  FCI will provide an internet gateway for integrating DOS with State governments within 4 months. After that, within 2 months, States will integrate their Warehouse Management Systems with DOS. The Union Minister issued instructions to the officials of Department of Food and PD to continuously review the progress made in this regard.

Another key announcement made by the Minister was regarding a solution to the problem of malnutrition.The Food & PD department will be implementing a new Centrally Sponsored Pilot Scheme for “Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under Public Distribution System” which was given administrative approval on 14-Feb-2019.

The Pilot Scheme has been approved with a total budget outlay of Rs.147.61 crores for a period of 3 years beginning 2019-20, and it will be funded by Government of India in the ratio of 90:10 in respect of North Eastern, Hilly and Island States and 75:25 in respect of the rest of the States.

The Scheme will focus on 15 Districts (one District per State).At present, 9 states have agreed to start the scheme and have identified the districts. These states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Assam. The remaining states have been requested to select the districts and work on implementation of this system by selecting Agency-Mills for rice fortification.

It has been kept in the government’s 100 days agenda.The Ministry of Women and Child Development and Human Resource Development have already been providing rice fortified with nutritious elements in Anganwadi centers and Mid-Day Meal Scheme at some places.