Know All About: One Nation One Ration Card Scheme (ONORC Scheme)

By Surajit Bhaduri|Updated : November 18th, 2020

Introduction

  • In the past 14 months, 28 states and Union Territories have enrolled in the 'One Nation One Ration Card' platform.

  • Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, about 81 crore persons are authorized to buy subsidized food grain from their authorized Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

  • At present, about 23 crore ration cards have been distributed to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries of NFSA in all states and UTs.

  • In the present system, a ration cardholder can buy food grains only from an FPS that has been assigned to her in the locality in which she lives.

  • If a beneficiary shifts to another state, he/she would have to apply for a new ration card in the second state.

  • Registering for ration cards at the new location is a complicated process, especially if some members of the household remain in their original home.

One Nation, One Ration Card

  • Though, under the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' system, the beneficiary will be able to buy subsidized food grains from any FPS across the country.

  • Ration card portability is aimed at delivering intra-state as well as inter-state portability of ration cards.

  • This has become probable by collating all details of beneficiaries in a central database, seeding the Aadhaar number of beneficiaries and by the installation of ePoS devices at FPS.

  • The new system will recognize a beneficiary through biometric authentication on electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices installed at the FPS, and enable that person to purchase the entitled quantity of food grains.

  • The Annavitran portal enables a migrant worker or his family to avail the benefits of PDS outside their district but within their state.

  • The Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) portal provides the technological platform for the inter-state portability of ration cards.

Who are the beneficiaries of this scheme?

  • The major beneficiaries of the scheme are the country's migrant workers. Women who change locations after marriage will also benefit from the procedure, as they find it challenging to start accessing ration benefits using a new household's card.

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What are the benefits of ONORC?

  • Under the old system, beneficiaries were reliant on a single fair price shopUnder the new system, if they are deprived of service or face corruption or low quality in one shop, they are free to move to a different shop.

  • It is expected, that allowing ration card portability will also reduce corruption and improve access and service quality by removing monopolies. The scheme is even driving the faster implementation of initiatives to digitize and integrate the food storage and public distribution system.

  • The One Nation, One Ration Card scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in August 2020. The government had set itself the target for integrating all States/UTs under the ONORC platform by March 2021, covering 81 crore beneficiaries.

  • By the end of October 2020, 28 states and Union Territories have joined the 'One Nation One Ration Card' platform. This has enabled nearly 69 crore beneficiaries to get subsidized foodgrains from their place of work or residence under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Was the system of great use during the lockdown?

  • The scheme came as a massive relief for the poor during the nationwide lockdown.

  • Under the NFSA, the Centre is providing food grains to states for distribution to nearly 81.4 crore beneficiaries at a subsidized rate of Rs 2 per kg of rice and Rs 3 per kg of wheat.

  • However, under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojna since March, each beneficiary has also been getting additional 5kg food grains per month for free.

How many ration cards were removed in the last decade?

  • The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution began the exercise of weeding out the fake ration cards in 2013, soon after the enactment of the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

  • The efforts gained pace after 2014, with the speed of identifying and removing fake/bogus/ghost quadrupling since then.

  • As per the latest data, the government has weeded out nearly 4.4 crore counterfeit ration cards in the past seven years. Over one-third of the fake cards (approximately 1.7 crores) removed were from Uttar Pradesh.

  • The other two states where a high number of such ghost cards were removed are West Bengal (68 lakh) and Maharashtra. Karnataka, Rajasthan, Telangana and Jharkhand have also weeded out more than 10 lakh such ghost ration cards each.

What can be done through the use of technology?

The government's efforts in weeding out bogus ration cards were fruitful due to use of technology through:

  1. The digitization of ration cards.

  2. Aadhaar seeding of the cards and beneficiaries.

  3. Installation of ePoS machines at ration shops. (FPS shops)

This helps ensure that only the rightful beneficiaries are getting the highly subsidized food grains and also that the ration shop owners distribute the food grains to all the beneficiaries.

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