The government might extend the implementation of ration card portability under the 'One Nation-One Ration Card' initiative beyond March 2021, the Food Ministry said in a statement, without specifying a reason for considering this move. So far, 24 states and union territories have signed up for the scheme, and the government had earlier said that it plans to integrate the remaining states before March 2021. During the proposed extended period, funding requirements of states and UTs will also be met. 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. This was discussed during a meeting of the Empowered Committee of the Food Department on schemes for PDS (public distribution system) reforms to review and approve the extension of the Integrated Management of Public Distribution Scheme (IM-PDS), under which the One Nation One Ration Card plan has been implemented. The Department’s Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, UIDAI’s CEO Pankaj Kumar, director general of NIC Neeta Verma, food secretaries of four states, and representatives of IT Ministry and Food Council of India were present at the meeting. The Empowered Committee also reviewed the progress of other related plans such as Aadhaar generation/seeding and the development of a mobile application aimed to help migrant beneficiaries to register themselves to avail benefits of the scheme. The Department is also planning to implement a national…
