A total of 20 states and UTs, including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, have come onboard the One Nation, One Ration card platform as of June 2020, as per the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. The One Nation One Ration Card facility is a plan to ensure food security to all beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, irrespective of their physical location anywhere in the country, by implementing nationwide portability of ration cards. The Ministry said that testing of this facility in four more states and UTs including Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand were completed, and they will allow the facility “shortly”. All states and UTs to be integrated by March 2021 When the government had said that the facility will be introduced across the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had claimed that it will benefit 67 crore people in 23 states, or 83% of the PDS population, by August 2020. The 20 states and UTs which have signed up for the facility are: Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Kerala, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. All other states and UTs are targeted to be integrated before March 2021, the Ministry said. The system can be used via ePOS devices installed at PDS fair price shops, and can be accessed by beneficiaries by quoting either their ration card number or the…
