Rs. 46.86 Crore released to States/UTs, NIC/NICSI during last three financial years under One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan for nationwide portability of ration cards
New Delhi: The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ms. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today shared that through technology-driven One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) system, all beneficiaries under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), particularly migrant beneficiaries, can lift their monthly entitled foodgrains, either in parts or full, from any electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country by using their existing ration card or Aadhaar number with biometric authentication. Their family members back home, if any, may also lift the part/balance foodgrains on the same ration card.
One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan for nationwide portability of ration cards is implemented by this Department under the Central Sector Scheme i.e. Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS), which was sanctioned in April 2018 with total outlay of Rs. 127.3 Crore. The scheme is extended till 31st March 2023. So far, financial assistance of Rs. 46.86 Crore has been released to States/UTs, NIC/NICSI, etc. during last three financial years 2020-21 (Rs.12.65 crore), 2021-22 (Rs.23.76 crore) and 2022-23 (Rs. 10.45 crore).
The One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan, for nation-wide portability of the National Food Security Act 2013 (NFSA) beneficiaries is presently enabled in all the 36 States/UTs across the country, covering entire NFSA population (around 80 Crore NFSA beneficiaries) in the country. Currently an average of nearly 3.5 crore portability transactions are being reported under ONORC every month in the country. So far, a total of 93.31 crore portability transactions have been recorded under ONORC.
A nationwide campaign has been carried out to create awareness among the NFSA beneficiaries about ONORC in different modes viz. 167 FM and 91 Community Radio stations, displaying audio visual spots at railway stations, banners, posters at outdoors and Fair Price Shops (FPSs), bus wraps apart from States/UTs employing their own means for such campaigns. The “Mera Ration” App, which is available in 13 languages, also has seen nearly 20 lakh downloads so far.