One Nation One Ration Card, on Monday, the center informed the parliamentary standing committee on labor that many states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam, are yet to come on board with the new system. However, the centre is planning to roll it out by March 2021 (1).
The One Nation One Ration Card would ensure that people holding ration cards would be able to lift their entitled quote. It includes subsidized food grains from any ePoS-enabled fair price shop in the country. Holders can use it from their existing ration card after authenticating with Aadhar on the ePoS device.
All states will be added to the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme by March 21: Centre.
As per the sources, 24 states and UTs are on board with the new system implementation, however 12 are yet to lend their support. Some of the states want the co-existence of the hybrid system. In the hybrid system, a ration card holder could lift his share with either the new system or the old system. At the same time, other states want to improve their internet connectivity before rolling out the new One Nation One Ration Card system.
West Bengal has not opted for the new mechanism, while Chhattisgarh complained about connectivity issues. Several other states also agreed to Chhattisgarh and said that internet connectivity is not smooth in their respective states. Hence, they are not in favor of the new system added Bhartruhari Mahtab, the panel chairman.
As part of the scheme, the standing committee interacted with the ministry of consumer affairs. The committee also included food and public distribution ministry in their discussion. The plan focuses on the migrant workers since they can’t get the public distribution system (PDS) benefits as they are not in their native places.
