Ration card portability cluster is 28-strong with TN, Arunachal linking up
03 Oct 2020
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With two more states - Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh - integrating with existing national portability cluster of `One Nation One Ration Card’ the number states/union territories in the national ration card portability chain has gone up to 28.
The necessary preparatory activities to integrate these states with the national cluster, ie, 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 have already been completed in these two states.
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 1 October 2020.
The Department of Food and Public Distribution under the ministry of consumer affairs, food and 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 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. 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 employment, etc are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of foodgrains from any fair price shop 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 FPSs.
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