Last day to implement One Nation One Ration Card scheme. Here's how states fare

The One Nation One Ration Card scheme was initially started in four states in August 2019. Now, two years later, it is enabled in 33 states and UTs covering almost 86.7 per cent of the NFSA population (about 690 million NFSA beneficiaries) in the country, according to the central government.

The Supreme Court last month set July 31, 2021, as the last date for the states and Union territories across India to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme. As the deadline nears its completion, the Centre said on Friday that state governments have completed the Aadhaar seeding of nearly 95 per cent of ration cards in their respective administrative regions.

Under the NFSA, residences covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) are entitled to receive 35kg of foodgrains per household per month at ₹1-3 per kg. (File Photo / PTI)

"States/UTs have completed the Aadhaar seeding of about 21.91 crore (92.8 per cent) ration cards and 70.94 crore (90 per cent) NFSA (National Food Security Act) beneficiaries at the national level," informed Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the Union minister of state (MoS) for food and consumer affairs, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The One Nation One Ration Card scheme is one of the several plans being implemented under the NFSA to enable nationwide portability of ration cards. Under this scheme, all eligible ration card holders and beneficiaries covered under the NFSA can access their benefits from fair price shops (FPS) anywhere in the country. The beneficiaries (or their family members back home) would simply need their existing ration card(s) to claim their fair share of foodgrains. The authentication will be based on a biometric system or Aadhaar.

Delhi is the latest territory to enable the ONORC plan from July 2021, the minister said, adding that the central government has been urging the remaining three states of Chhattisgarh, Assam, and West Bengal to enable the scheme at the earliest "depending upon their technical readiness to implement the portability of ration cards."

Under the NFSA, households covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) are entitled to receive 35kg of foodgrains per household per month at ₹1-3 per kg. The Priority Households are entitled to receive 5kg of foodgrains per person per month at ₹1-3 per kg. More than 800 million people are covered under the food law.