Implementation of ONORC scheme

The Department in association with State/UT Governments is implementing ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONORC) plan for nation-wide portability of ration cards under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA). So far, the facility has been enabled in 32 States/UTs covering nearly 69 Crore beneficiaries, almost 86% of NFSA population of the country.

Under ONORC, the beneficiaries, if desire, can lift their entitled foodgrains from any ePoS (electronic Point of Sale device) enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice by using their same/existing ration cards with biometric authentication on the ePoS device at the time of lifting the foodgrains through portability. No direction has been given to States/UTs for issuance of new ration cards to beneficiaries under ONORC. However, for the sake of uniformity under ONORC operations, States/UTs have been advised to adopt a standard bi-lingual format for ration cards whenever they decide to issue/print new ration cards under NFSA in the future.

The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under NFSA is operated under the joint responsibilities of the Central and State/UT Governments. Under the joint responsibility, the State/UT Governments are responsible for identification of eligible beneficiaries under NFSA, issuance of ration cards to them, lifting of foodgrains from the designated depots, distribution to ration card holders as per their entitlements through FPSs, etc. Thus, identification of eligible beneficiaries and issuance of ration cards to them for distribution of foodgrains under NFSA lies with the concerned State/UT Government. Presently, out of the total given coverage of 81.35 Crore persons under NFSA, around 80 Crore beneficiaries are receiving their entitled quota of foodgrains through TPDS on monthly basis.

Further, directions under Section-38 of the NFSA have been issued to all States/UTs to cover all eligible disabled persons under the NFSA.Besides, all States/UTs have also been advised to identify needy persons from the weaker sections of the society including disabled persons through time-to-time special drives, camps, etc. and issue NFSA ration cards to all eligible persons/households up to the defined coverage of persons under NFSA for their State/UT.

State/UT wise number of NFSA beneficiaries covered under ONORC so far is as follows-

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Danve Raosaheb Dadarao in Lok Sabha today.