New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Since inception of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan in August 2019, approximately 56 crore portability transactions have been recorded in the country up to January 31, 2022, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Of these, Bihar that enabled the scheme in May 2020, alone saw a whopping15,90,43,162 transactions, the highest in all states and UTs, followed by Andhra Pradesh (August 2019) that saw 8,62,33,519 transactions, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
Also, from the large volume of portability transactions under ONORC, it is evident that the beneficiaries are leveraging the facility of ration portability to access their share of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) as well as Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PM-GKAY) from any FPS of their choice, without being dependent on the tagged ration shop in the ration card, he said.
Such flexibility was not available earlier under the traditional TPDS operations when beneficiaries had to lose their food security benefits in the event of migration or being away from their village/town or designated FPS, he said.
Under the technology-driven ONORC plan, there is no need to physically port the ration card from one state/UT to another, as the beneficiaries have the choice to lift their foodgrains from any electronic point of sale (ePoS) device enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) from anywhere in the country, he added.
The beneficiaries can do so by using their same/existing ration card issued in their home State/UT, Choubey said.
