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‘One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC)’ system will be rolled out in all states and Union Territories by March 2021.

What is the ‘ONORC’ system?

• Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, about 81 crore persons can buy subsidized food grain from their designated Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the Targeted Public Distribution System.
• About 23 crore ration cards have been issued to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries of NFSA in all states and UTs.
• Currently, if a person migrates from one state to another, she is unable to purchase subsidised food grains from a PDS shop in her new locality.
• But, under the ‘ONORC’ system, the beneficiary will be able to buy subsidised food grains from any FPS across the country.
• It will identify a beneficiary through biometric authentication on electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices installed at the FPSs.
• It will enable that person to purchase the quantity of food grains to which she is entitled under the NFSA.

How will the system of ration card portability work?

• Ration card portability is aimed at providing intra-state as well as inter-state portability of ration cards.
• Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) portal (www.impds.nic.in) provides the technological platform for the inter-state portability of ration cards.
• This portal enables a migrant worker to buy food grains from any FPS across the country.
• The Annavitran portal (annavitran.nic.in) hosts the data of distribution of food grains through E-PoS devices within a state.
• This portal enables a migrant worker or his family to avail the benefits of PDS outside their district but within their state.
• So, a person can buy her share of food grains as per her entitlement under the NFSA, wherever she is based.
• The rest of her family members can purchase subsidised food grains from their ration dealer back home.

Since when has the ONORC System been in the works?

• Work on this project was started in April 2018 when the government launched IM-PDS scheme to reform the PDS system in the country.
• The PDS system was inefficient leading to leakages in the system.
• To plug the leakages and make the system better, the government started the reform process.
• For this purpose, it used a technological solution involving the use of Aadhaar to identify beneficiaries.
• Under the scheme, the seeding of ration cards with Aadhaar is being done and PoS machines are being installed at all FPSs across India.
• Once 100% of Aadhaar seeding and 100% installation of PoS devices is achieved, the national portability of ration cards will become a reality.
• It will enable migrant workers to buy food grains from any FPS by using their existing/same ration card.

How many states have come on board?

• It was initially proposed to nationally rollout the ‘ONORC’ scheme by June 1, 2020.
• So far, 17 states and UTs have come on board to roll out the inter-state portability of ration cards under the NFSA.
• Three more states are expected to come on board by June 1, taking the number of States and UTs to 20 under the ONORC System.
• These three states are Odisha, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

How has been the experience of Ration Card Portability so far?

• According to data available on the IMPDS portal, only 275 transactions have been done until May 14.
• However, the number of transactions in intra-state ration card portability is quite high.
• The data available on the Annavitaran portal shows that about one crore transactions took place using the facility last month.
• It means that usages of intra-state ration card portability are way higher than the inter-state portability.