No Need to Physically Port the Ration Card from one State/UT to Another Under One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) Plan

The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday informed that under the technology driven One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan, as such there is no need to physically port the ration card from one State/UT to another, as the beneficiaries have choice to lift their foodgrains from any electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) from anywhere in the country, by using their same/existing ration card issued in their home State/UT. Since inception of the ONORC plan in August 2019, a total of about 56 Crore portability transactions have been recorded in the States/UTs under ONORC up to 31^st January 2022. A State/UT wise statement showing total number of portability transactions recorded under ONORC is at Annexure.

            As part of the Concurrent Evaluation of the implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA) and Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) operations through Monitoring Institutes (MIs), which are esteemed universities and institutions of national repute, the Department has conducted assessments of the implementation of the ONORC plan in States/UTs in a phased manner. 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 NFSA as well as PM-GKAY foodgrains from any FPS of their choice, without being dependent on the tagged ration shop in the ration card. Such a 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.

Annexure

State/UT wise statement showing total number of portability transactions recorded by States/UTs under ONORC since inception in August 2019 and upto 31^st January 2022: