With West Bengal and Delhi coming onboard, the number of states implementing the One Nation One Ration Card scheme has gone up to 34, covering almost 94.3 per cent of National Food Security Act beneficiaries, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said Saturday.
In a statement, the Ministry said, “Under One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) which was running successfully in 32 states/UTs till December 2020, has now became operational in two more states/UTs-Delhi and West Bengal till August 2021 thereby, expanding the scheme to 34 states/UTs covering nearly 75 Crore beneficiaries (almost 94.3% NFSA population).â€
“Two remaining states -Assam and Chhattisgarh are targeted for integration under ONORC in next few months,†the statement said.
While Delhi operationalized the ONORC from July 23, West Bengal has done the same with effect from August13, said an official.
The development comes after the Supreme Court, on June 29, directed all states and Union Territories to implement the ONORC system which allows for inter- and intra-state portability, by July 31.
The ONORC scheme is aimed at enabling migrant workers and their family members to buy subsidised ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the Food Security Act of 2013. It was launched in August 2019.
According to the Union Food Ministry, a monthly average of about 2.2 crore portability transactions (including inter-/intra-State and PM-GKAY foodgrain transactions) are being recorded across the states and Union Territories at present.
As far as the inter-state portability of the ration cards is concerned, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat are the top four destination states which have recorded the maximum number of inward transactions since the inception of the scheme, the ministry said.
However, the maximum number of outward transactions have been recorded in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
