On March 12, 2021, the Department of Food & Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution launched the ‘Mera Ration’ Mobile app under the ‘One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC)’ plan. It aims to benefit ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods.
- The mobile app has been developed by the Department of Food & Public Distribution along with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- Objective – To ensure better implementation of the ONORC Scheme.
- Targeted Beneficiaries – Beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), with a focus on Migrant workers, Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers & other relevant stakeholders.
Features of ‘Mera Ration’ app
- To identify and locate the nearest FPS.
- Beneficiaries can check details of Foodgrain entitlement, Recent Transaction & status of Aadhaar linking.
- Migrant beneficiaries can register their migrant details through the app.
- It is currently available in Hindi & English and at a later stage will be made available in 14 languages.
Fact
Under NFSA, Government provides highly subsidized food grains at INR 1-3 per kg to over 81 Crore people through Public Distribution System (PDS).
One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC)
It is being implemented by the Department of Food & Public Distribution for nation-wide portability of ration cards under NFSA.
- It will allow all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrants to claim either full or part food grains from any FPS in the country using ration cards.
- Started in 2019 it now covers 32 States/UTs in India. The remaining 4 States/UT (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi & West Bengal) will be covered in the next few months.
- At present ONORC covers 69 Crore NFSA beneficiaries (86% of NFSA population) in India.
- During the period April 2020 to February 2021, a total of about 15.4 Crore portability transactions were recorded under ONORC.
Incentive for States
- States completing the implementation of the ONORC system are eligible for additional borrowing of 0.25 % of GSDP.
- To date, 17 states have operationalised the ONORC system resulting in a grant of additional borrowing permission of INR 37, 600 Crore by the Department of Expenditure.
Linking with Migrant’s Portal
To ensure that all beneficiaries are covered, the Migrants’ portal has also been integrated with the ONROC system.
Recent Related News
i.January 6, 2021, Madhya Pradesh (MP) & Andhra Pradesh (AP) became the 1st Group of States to complete three out of the Four citizen schemes stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. The 4 schemes are One Nation One Ration Card Reforms, Ease of Doing Business Reforms, & Urban Local Bodies Reforms.
About the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution:
Union Minister – Piyush Goyal (Rajya Sabha MP representing Maharashtra)
Minister of State – Raosaheb Patil Danve (Lok Sabha MP, constituency – Jalna, Maharashtra)
