Correct Answer : 3 Years
The scheme has now been implemented all over the country with Assam being the latest state to join the initiative in June 2022. The One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC), which was launched as a pilot project on August 9, 2019 in four states, has completed three years.
Premlata, who was at the fair price shop in Bhagat Singh market here in Gole Market in the national capital, said she no longer has to travel all the way to her village to get the subsidised food grains or forego her right.
"Ration lene ke liye, kiraya laga kar gaon nahi jaana padta hai. (We do not need to spent money to go to our hometown to get our rations)," she said. Premlata, along with her husband and two children, moved to the national capital two years ago from Khajni tehsil in Gorakhpur.
The technology-driven ONORC scheme is being implemented by the Centre for the nation-wide portability of ration cards under the NFSA(National Food Security Act,2013).
This system allows all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly the migrant beneficiaries, to claim either full or part of their entitled food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through an existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner.
The system also allows their family members back home, if any, to claim the balance food grains on the same ration card.
At present, on an average about 3 crore portability transactions per month are being recorded under the scheme. Since inception in August 2019, about 77.88 crore portable transactions have taken place under the scheme. Under the NFSA, the Centre is providing 5 kilograms of food grains per person every month to nearly 80 crore eligible beneficiaries at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kilogram.
To provide relief to poor, the Centre is also providing an additional 5 kilograms of food grains per person each month ‘free of cost’ to 80 crore people..
Source : Economic Times
