Ram Vilas Paswan, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, on the 9th of August, launched the ‘One Nation, One Ration’ policy in Telangana.
The policy was introduced by the Government of India (GoI) with the aim of providing ration across India with the ration card of any state. The Central Government kick started the policy in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Ram Vilas Paswan said, “It is a historic day. We have started inter state portability of ration card pairing two states each.”
The inter state portability policy will allow the beneficiaries of both the Telugu states to take goods from any Public Distribution System (PDS,) or ration shops, in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana.
Similarly, beneficiaries of Maharashtra and Gujarat can also buy products with a ration card in any of the two states.
After implementing the policy in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana and AP, the GoI will implement the policy in other states as well.
As of now, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tripura are testing the policy.
Ravi Kant, the Food Secretary of India, explained the policy and said, “By January 2020, these 11 states will be formed as one grid where ration card will be made portable. It means beneficiaries can buy ration from any one of these 11 states.”
When asked about the stock of food and other commodities, Paswan said, “There won’t be any problem because the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns have enough capacity and have been asked to stock three months of ration in advance.”
The Central Government is expected to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card policy across India by the 1st of June 2020.
Akun Sabharwal, the Commissioner of Civil Supplies, was a part of the launch event, which was held in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Mr. Sabharwal said the State is innovatively implementing the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ system. He further said the ration card details of the citizens of AP and Telangana will be accepted under the state portability policy. Residents of the States can buy products anywhere in either of the Telugu States.
The scheme will apply to the cards issued under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
Stay tuned for further updates.
