By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 01, 2020: THE Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan approved the integration of 5 States and Union Territories, - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu - with the National Cluster under the “One Nation One Ration Card” plan. Twelve States are already onboard the National Cluster, namely - Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura. Reviewing the progress of the implementation of National Portability of ration card holders under the “One Nation One Ration Card” plan, Shri Paswan took note of the requisite technicalreadiness of these 5 new States/UT with the National Cluster.

With this, the facility of national/inter-State portability will be available for nearly 60 Crore NFSA beneficiaries of 17 States/UT and they may lift their entitled quota of foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice, anywhere in these 17 States/UT by using their same/existing ration card under ‘One Nation One Ration Card' plan.

The Department has shared the necessary guidelines/instructions for the implementation of national portability as also imparted the requisite orientation trainings to the officers/technical teams of these 5 States/UTs.Further,while informing the 5 new States that required web-services for inter-Statetransactions and their monitoring through central dashboards have been activated with immediate effect, all 17 States/UTs concerned have been requestedto formally commence seamless inter-State/national portability operations in a single cluster w.e.f. today, or at the earliest, depending upon their on-field readiness.

Further, constant efforts are also being made to expand the reach of national portability under One Nation One Ration Card plan, to the beneficiaries of other States/UTs as per the readiness of respective State/UT Governments.