New Delhi: Union Minister for Food Supplies, Ram Vilas Paswan, has said that Modi government’s ambitious project of ‘One Nation One Card’ will begin next year on 1 July, 2020. He has asked all state governments and Union territories to begin the process of implementing the scheme.
The Food Minister said, “We have written to all State governments to fast track its implementation, so that the whole country is ready to implement ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ latest by June 30, 2020.”
The scheme will benefit poor migrant workers to get subsidized rice and wheat from any ration shop in the country as long as their ration cards are linked to Aadhar.
Ram Vilas Paswan added, “This scheme will ensure that no poor person is deprived of subsidised grains,” said the Minister.
All the states have been given another year to use Point of Sale (PoS) machines in the ration shops and implement the scheme. The Minister said that 77% of the ration shops in the country have the PoS machines and more than 85% of the people covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) have ration cards linked to their Aadhar.
Ten states have already offered portability and many other states can easily implement the scheme as every ration shops have PoS machines.
The minister said that he has written to all the states to implement the scheme as soon as possible. The scheme is to give poor people, who are living far away from their homes, the benefits of the public distribution of the Central government.
Paswan said that this scheme will also do away with the malpractice of making fake ration cards.
He said that this scheme comes under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 100 days action plan.
The Food Minister also outlined a project of the Central government to reduce nutrition deficiencies by fortifying rice grains with iron, folic acid, Vitamin A, and Vitamin B12. The Center would first begin the pilot project in 15 districts.
