The Central government announced ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme to allow national portability of ration cards for the people, who can now avail the benefits under the PDS system wherever they are in the country.

While announcing measures for migrant workers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that 100 percent of ration cardholders will be covered in ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme by March 2021. This was the second day when Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the media on ₹20 lakh crore Covid-19 relief package announced by PM Narendra Modi while addressing the nation on 12 May.

“In order to benefit migrants. the govt is coming up with one nation, one ration card scheme, which can be used in a ration shop in any part of the country. This will be implemented by August for 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states. 67 crore is 83% of the entire PDS system,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman further added that the entire nation will be covered under’ one one one ration scheme’ by March 2021.

This initiative is a technology-driven system. as announced as one of the pillars of Atma-nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan or Self-reliant India Mission by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Under the ‘one nation, one ration card’ initiative, eligible beneficiaries would be able to avail their entitled food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from any fair-price shop in the country. The scheme was announced in June last year.

For national portability, the state governments have been asked to issue the ration card in the bi-lingual format, wherein besides the local language, the other language could be Hindi or English. The states have also been told to have a 10-digit standard ration card number, wherein the first two digits will be state code and the next two digits will be running ration card numbers.

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