Team News Riveting
New Delhi, March 12
The Government today launched ‘Mera Ration’ mobile app even as 32 states and union territories have been covered under the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme.
Only four states remain to be integrated, namely, West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Assam. “The process of its integration is expected to be completed in a few more months,” Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said at the launch of Mera Ration mobile app. This app will benefit especially those ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods.
Pandey said that the system which was started initially in 4 States in August 2019 has been swiftly rolled out in a very short span of time in 32 States/UTs by December 2020 and the integration of remaining 4 States/UT (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal) was expected to be completed in next few months. He said that at present, the system covers nearly 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries (about 86 per cent NFSA population) in the country and a monthly average of about 1.5-1.6 crore portability transactions are being recorded under ONORC.
The ONORC has proved to be a tremendous value-added service to each NFSA beneficiary during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly migrants, which allowed them to avail the benefit of subsidised food grains with flexibility from any location wherever they were during the lockdown/crisis period. The freedom of choosing any FPS was not available earlier. During the period April 2020 to February 2021, a total of about 15.4 crore portability transactions have been recorded under ONORC.
