One Nation One Ration scheme

2020 MAR 4

Preliminary   > Agriculture   >   Storage, Transport & Marketing   >   Public distribution system

In news:

  • Delhi Police have caught a Jharkhand-based group which fraudulently gave contracts for issue of plastic cards under the One Nation One Ration scheme.

About ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ Scheme:

  • The Centre has designed a standard format for ration cards and has asked state governments to follow the pattern while issuing fresh ration cards.
  • The government wants to implement 'one nation, one ration card' scheme across the country effective 1st June 2020.
  • Under the one nation, one ration card' initiative, eligible beneficiaries would be able to avail their entitled food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card.
  • standard format for ration card has been prepared after taking into account the format used by different states and after consultation with other stakeholders.
  • The state governments have been advised to use this new format whenever the states decide to issue new ration cards.
  • The standardized ration card includes the requisite minimum details of the ration card holder and states can add more details as per their requirement.
  • For national portability, the state governments have been asked to issue the ration card in bi-lingual format, wherein besides the local language, the other language could be Hindi or English.
  • The states have also been told to have a 10-digit standard ration card number, wherein first two digits will be state code and the next two digits will be running ration card numbers.
  • Besides this, a set of another two digits will be appended with ration card number to create unique member IDs for each member of the household in a ration card.
  • No new ration cards are being made under the One Nation One Ration Card scheme. The existing card will be accepted across the country to get subsidized food grain.

PRELIMS QUESTION:

Q. Which of the following statements regarding ‘One nation, one ration card’ Scheme is/are correct?

1. Under the scheme, a beneficiary can avail entitled food grains from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card

2. All the beneficiaries will be provided with new ration cards to avail the benefit

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to Prelims question