Ration cards: UP yet to decide on ‘one nation’ scheme
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, is gearing up for rollout of the intra-state ration card portability system in all cities and villages by April 2020, making it possible for beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to buy subsidized food grains from any shop not only within the city or the village but anywhere in the state, a senior state government official said.
While ration card portability is being implemented in the urban areas of Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Barabanki districts, the UP government is yet to take a call on the inter-state portability that will pave the way for the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme, enabling people to buy PDS grains from anywhere in the country. At present, beneficiaries have access to intra-city portability, which means a priority household identified under the NFSA can buy its ration from any shop of its choice within the city and from a PDS shop in another city.
“An increasing number of beneficiaries are buying their monthly ration from the PDS shop of their choice within the city using the ration portability system that is presently working in a few cities only,” principal secretary, food and civil supply, Nivedita Shukla Verma said.
Currently, the distribution of ration under the PDS is a location-linked activity under which each household’s ration card is linked to a specific PDS shop in its locality. This denies the benefit of subsidised food grains to the families that migrate to other places within the state.
The records available with the department of food and civil supply show around 1.15 lakh urban households availed the portability facility to lift their monthly ration in five districts till September 17. “The portability also helps curb corruption by ending the ration dealers’ monopolies. The fear of an erosion in their customer base and, hence income, will force the dealers to be more customer-friendly,” Verma said.
“Moreover, the government can also look into the causes of a low number of beneficiaries going to particular shops to buy their ration and act accordingly,” she added. She said authorities could know in real time as to which customer bought ration from which shop and at what time.
› An increasing number of beneficiaries are buying their monthly ration from the PDS shop of their choice within the city using the ration portability system that is presently working in a few cities only NIVEDITA SHUKLA VERMA, principal secretary, food and civil supply
THE FLIP SIDE
However, Uttar Pradesh may not be favourably inclined to interstate ration card portability that will pave the way for ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme that the Centre launched last month asking states to join by June 1, 2020, people privy to the issue said. The Centre launched the inter-state ration card portability between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well as Maharashtra and Gujarat last month. The biggest beneficiaries of the inter-state portability of ration cards “will be migrant labourers deprived of food security,” Union minister for food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, said during the launch.
“But in UP, we have seen that labourers moving to other cities leave their families home and the families do avail the food security,” sources said, giving a reason why it would not be of much use for UP to implement the inter-state portability. Verma said all pros and coins were being weighed. “We are yet to take a final call,” she said.