The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in a statement released on Tuesday said that Ladakh and Lakshadweep have been integrated with the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme which allows eligible beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) would be able to avail their entitled foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS), also called ration shops, in the country using the same ration card.
With this, the number of states and Union Territories linked to the national ration card portability cluster has become 26, the other 24 states/UTs being Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
“Both the UTs (Ladakh and Lakshadweep) have completed the trial and testing of national portability transactions with other states/UTs in the national cluster. With this, a total of 26 states/UTs are now seamlessly connected with each other under the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ plan and would benefit about 65 crore people,” the statement said.
The remaining states are expected to be integrated by March 2021.
Earlier, Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had reviewed the progress made towards the implementation of the scheme nationwide and had approved the integration of these 2 UTs with existing national portability cluster.
