New Delhi: Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday announced that the central government is working on a plan to launch a “One Nation One Ration Card” scheme for beneficiaries, especially migrant workers, to access the Public Distribution System from any PDS shop across the country.
It is aimed at providing freedom to beneficiaries, as they will not be tied to one PDS shop, and reduce their dependence on shop owners hence curtailing corruption.
"The basic idea of 'One Nation, One Ration Card' is to have Point of Sale Machines (POS) in every government-certified PDS store. The availability of PoS (Point of Sale) machines need to be ensured at all PDS shops to implement the scheme. PoS machines are available at all PDS shops in ten states including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and a few other others, but 100 per cent availability is required to provide the benefit across the country,” said Paswan after chairing a meeting on the scheme on Thursday.
Paswan had chaired a meet with food secretaries and other officials of state governments, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs).
Paswan further announced, "we are happy that POS machines have been installed in 70 percent of the country's PDS stores and 85 percent of the ration cards have been linked to the Aadhar cards."
The cabinet minister also pointed out that POS machines have been installed in 22 states with a 100 percent coverage.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, which will implement the scheme, the Integrated Management of PDS (IMPDS), under which beneficiaries can avail their share of food grain from any district, is operational in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura.
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The food ministry is also likely to create a central repository of all ration cards which will help in de-duplication.
Paswan also said the work done by the Department of Food and Public Distribution is very important. It is a lifeline for the beneficiaries wherein 612 lakh tonnes of foodgrains, stored in warehouses of FCI, CWC, SWCs and private godowns, are distributed among 81 crore people annually.
