'Over 1.43L ration card holders of other states collected foodgrains in Delhi in three months'

New Delhi: Over 1.43 lakh people holding ration cards of other states have availed the benefits of the "One Nation One Ration Card" (ONORC) scheme and collected foodgrains from the fair price shops in Delhi in the last three months, Food and Supplies Minister Imran Hussain said. The AAP government implemented the ONORC scheme in the national capital in July. Delhi has 17.77 lakh ration cardholders and around 72.78 lakh beneficiaries. The city has over 2,000 fair price shops.

According to data provided by the food and supplies department, between July and September 30, a total of 1,43,377 people holding ration cards of other states collected foodgrains from Delhi under the ONORC scheme.

In July, 16,150 people availed the benefits under the scheme. The number increased to 40,797 in August. In September, 86,430 people holding ration cards of other states collected free ration from the fair price shops in Delhi.

"In nearly three months, over 1.43 lakh people collected free ration in the nation capital under ONORC, which shows that Delhi is among the top performing states in this category," Hussain told.

"Many people are still unaware of this initiative, so we are hoping that more people will collect ration under ONORC in the coming months. We are spreading awareness among the masses about the initiative," he said.

Under the scheme, ration card holders under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 can collect their monthly quota of foodgrains from any fair price shop across the country.

The portability depends on the ePoS machines, which use Aadhaar-linked biometric authentication to verify the identity and entitlement of the beneficiaries.

A senior official of the food and supplies department said the scheme is a "boon" for migrant workers and other such floating populations living in the national capital as they can get ration from any of the fair price shops in the city.

"Delhi has a sizable number of such people. Many of them have ration cards, but of other states. Hence, they were unable to collect ration. But with ONORC, they can get free foodgrains from any of the fair price shops in the city. We are hoping that people will benefit from this scheme in the future," the official said.

The Delhi government distributes free ration among the beneficiaries under the NFSA 2013 and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) through electronic point of sale (ePoS) devices.

The government had suspended the use of ePoS devices in early 2018 following complaints of a poor network leading to authentication failures and exclusion of genuine beneficiaries.

Ration distribution through ePoS devices was restarted in July.

Hussain said the ration distribution though ePoS devices is functioning smoothly.

"We have successfully been able to distribute over 92 per cent ration every month since the ePoS system was restarted in July. In July, ration distribution through ePoS was 92 per cent, in August, it was nearly 93 per cent and in September, it was nearly 95 per cent," he

added.