One Nation One Ration Card Scheme

Under the “One Nation One Ration Card” scheme, eligible beneficiaries would be able to avail their entitled food grains under the National Food Security Act from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country using the same ration card in any part of the country.

Benefits

• One Nation One Ration Card scheme aims to provide freedom to the beneficiaries, as they will not be tied to single PDS shop, lessen their dependence on shop owners and curb corruption.

• The scheme will mainly benefit migrant laborer and workers.

• The main beneficiaries will be migrant workers who shift to other states in search of better job opportunities.

Standard Ration Card Format

A standard format for ration cards will be issued to achieve the aim of national portability. The state governments have been advised to use this new format whenever the states decide to issue new ration cards.

The standardized ration card includes the requisite minimum details of the ration card holder and states can add more details as per their requirement.

10-digit standard ration card number will be provided to the beneficiary wherein first two digits will be state code and the next two digits will be running ration card numbers. Besides this, 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.

Implementation

• Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution will implement this scheme.

• Ministry will create a central depository of all ration cards which will help in eliminating duplication

• As on January 1 2020, One Nation One Ration card scheme has been implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand and Tripura.

• The government aims to implement the 'one nation, one ration card' facility across the country from June 1, 2020. This facility will largely cover migrant laborers and daily wagers.

• The availability of Point of Sale (PoS) machines need to be ensured at all the PDS shops to implement the scheme. 

• There is also a plan to set up a real-time online database of ration cards—Integrated Management of PDS (IMPDS). IMPDS is already operational in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura wherein a beneficiary can avail his share of foodgrain from any district in the state.