‘One nation one ration card’ will be soon introduced: Danve

Any beneficiary would be allowed to get food security benefits from any public distribution system (PDS) depot across the country

The central government will implement ‘one nation one ration card’ scheme across the country, said Union minister of state for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Raosaheb Dadarao Danve on Monday.

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The minister was in Amritsar to attend a meeting with the officials of the food supply and consumer affairs department, PUNSUP and warehouse, to check wheat procurement arrangements in Punjab.

As per the guidelines, any beneficiary would be allowed to get food security benefits from any public distribution system (PDS) depot across the country.

Danve said the move was for effective implementation of this new scheme and 12 clusters have already been established across the country. “Under this new scheme, the consumers will not have to apply for new ration card if they relocate to other parts of the country. Same card will be applicable across the country and beneficiaries will be able to buy subsidized food items from any ration depot,” said Danve.

He said that out of total 332 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) procured wheat at national level, Punjab contributes about 129 LMT. Similarly Punjab contributes about 113 LMT in the aggregated procurement of rice that touches 416 LMT mark in the country. Danve said as the wheat procurement would start in the coming weeks, the main purpose of his visit was to discuss the arrangements to run the wheat purchase smoothly

The Union minister also informed that to store the wheat on scientific techniques, silos (steel storehouse) were being set up with capacity of 100LMT and the Union government has also fixed a target to set up the silos with 700LMT storage capacity in the country. He further revealed that to store 33.5 LMT wheat, 92 sites have been selected in Punjab and preparation was already under progress.

He also visited country’s largest silos with a capacity of 2LMT (MTs) at Dagru village in Moga district.

Danve accompanied by general manager of Food Corporation of India (FCI), Arshdeep Singh Thind, reviewed the advanced technology of the project.