States/UTs complete Aadhaar seeding of 93% ration cards

The Centre on Friday said that states and union territories (UTs) have completed Aadhaar seeding of nearly 93 per cent of ration cards.

Union Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, informed that "states/UTs have completed the Aadhaar seeding of about 21.91 crore (92.8 per cent) ration cards and 70.94 crore (90 per cent) NFSA (National Food Security Act) beneficiaries at the national level." Under the NFSA, households covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) are entitled to receive 35 kg of foodgrains per household per month at Rs 1-3 per kg. The Priority Households are entitled to receive 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month at Rs 1-3 per kg. Over 80 crore people are covered under the food law.

The minister said that nearly 4.98 lakh (92.7 per cent) ration shops in the country are having ePoS devices till July 23.

The One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan, for nation-wide portability of the NFSA benefits, is presently enabled in 33 states/UTs covering almost 86.7 per cent NFSA population (about 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries) in the country, the minister said.

Delhi being the latest to enable the same from July 2021.

Further, she said, the department has regularly pursued with the remaining 3 states of Chhattisgarh, Assam and West Bengal to enable the ONORC at the earliest depending upon their technical readiness to implement the portability of ration cards.

Under the ONORC plan, presently an average of about 1.5 crore portability transactions are recorded on a monthly basis, which accounts for only about 10 per cent of total Public Distribution System (PDS) transactions happening in the country, the minister said.

Since its inception in August 2019, more than 29 crore portability transactions have been recorded under the ONORC plan up to June 2021.

source https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/statesuts-complete-aadhaar-seeding-of-93-ration-cards