New Delhi, June 21: Assam has become the 36th State to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme. With this, the ONORC plan is successfully implemented in all 36 states, and Union Territories, making food security portable throughout the country.

During the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ONORC plan has significantly contributed to ensuring subsidized foodgrains for National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries, especially migrant beneficiaries. This is a one-of-its-kind citizen-centric initiative in the country, which is swiftly implemented in a short span of time covering about 80 Crore beneficiaries, after being initiated in August 2019, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a statement today. Supreme Court Directs All States and UTs to Implement One-Nation, One Ration Card Scheme Till July 31.

The objective of this beneficiary centric high-impact program is to empower all NFSA beneficiaries to become AtmaNirbhar for their food security anywhere in the country, through the portability of their existing ration cards enabling them to seamlessly lift their entitled subsidized foodgrains (in part or full) from any Fair Price Shop of their choice. This also enables their family members to lift balance/required amount of foodgrains on the same ration card at their native/ any place from the FPS of their choice.

Since its inception in August 2019, about 71 Crore portable transactions (43.6 crores NFSA and 27.8 crore PM-GKAY transactions) have taken place under ONORC, delivering foodgrains equivalent to about Rs 40,000 crore in food subsidy through portability.

About 64 crore portable transactions have been recorded during the COVID-19 period itself (from April 2020 till date) delivering foodgrains equivalent to about Rs 36,000 crore in food subsidy through portability. Out of these, 64 crore portable transactions, and 27.8 crore portability transactions were recorded under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), which was announced in March 2020 for the distribution of additional free-of-cost foodgrains (rice/wheat) to NFSA beneficiaries to mitigate the Covid induced hardships.

Additionally, as a key indicator, presently a monthly average of about three crores portable transactions are being recorded, delivering the subsidised NFSA and free PMGKAY foodgrains with anywhere flexibility to the beneficiaries.

Another dimension under the ONORC plan is the 'Mera Ration' mobile application which has been rolled out to take maximum advantage of the ONORC plan. The mobile app is providing a host of useful real time information to the beneficiaries and is available in 13 languages.

One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) is a scheme that will nationalise a beneficiary's ration card by a process called Aadhaar Seeding. Aadhaar seeding ensures that the beneficiary can pick up her or his entitled foodgrain from any fair price shop in the country. So, if the family migrants from one part of the country to another, their claim to food security remains assured.

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