One Nation, One Ration Card: Assam getting technically ready to start portable ration card service by September, says food ministry official

One Nation One Ration Card: Assam, the only state left to get connected under the Centre's One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC) programme, is getting technically ready to operationalise the scheme by September this year, a senior food ministry official said on Thursday.

Under the scheme, individuals holding a ration card under the National Food Security Act can collect their monthly quota of foodgrain from any Fair Price Shop (FRS) across the country.

The portability depends on e-PoS (electronic Point of Sale) machines, which use Aadhaar-linked biometric authentication to verify the identity and entitlement of beneficiaries.

"Assam has made a lot of progress in the last six months. The state government has installed 33,000 e-PoS devices and is in the process of Aadhaar seeding. The state is working on a war footing," the official told PTI.

Aadhaar seeding process has to catch up as 70 per cent has been completed so far, the official said, adding the central government is following up with the state government on a weekly basis.

"We expect Assam to operationalise ONORC by September though we wish that the state implements the scheme much earlier," the official added.

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Currently, 35 states and Union Territories have been connected under the ONORC scheme, covering 77 crore beneficiaries. About 2.5- 2.6 crore monthly portable transactions are being undertaken across India.

About 615 million portable transactions have been undertaken since the launch of the scheme in August 2019, the official added.