New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS): Two more States, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh have been integrated with the existing national portability cluster of 26 States/UTs under the One Nation One Ration Card, said Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Thursday in a statement.
The necessary preparatory activities to integrate these States with the national cluster i.e. upgradation of ePoS software, integration with central IM-PDS and Annavitran portals, availability of ration cards/beneficiaries data in Central Repository, requisite testing of national portability transactions, etc. has already been completed in these two States, said the statement.
With this, a total of 28 States/UTs are now seamlessly connected with each other under the One Nation One Ration Card plan.
Migratory PDS beneficiaries in these 28 States/UTs can access their subsidised foodgrains at the same scale and central issue prices from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice from October 1, 2020, said the Ministry.
The Department of Food & Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution is implementing nation-wide portability of the benefits under NFSA through "One Nation One Ration Card" plan, which aims to provide an option to all NFSA beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries of these states can lift their entitled foodgrains under NFSA from any ePoS-enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the country, by using their existing/same ration card with Aadhaar authentication on ePoS device.
This facility is already enabled seamlessly across 26 States/UT, namely - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland, Uttarakhand,Lakshadweep and Ladakh.
The remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.
Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments, etc. are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the 28 States/UTs by using their same/existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the fair price shops, said the statement.