One Nation One Ration Card : Integration Of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi & West Bengal Remaining, Centre Tells Supreme Court

A total of 32 States/UTs covering around 86% of the population covered under the National Food Security Act in the country have been brought under the ONORC plan by December 2020, with the exception of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal, submitted the Centre to the Supreme Court in the Suo Moto Migrant Workers case.

"The integration of remaining 4 States/UT of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal is expected to be achieved, depending upon the technical readiness of these States to implement the portability of ration cards. The onus on implementing ONORC is on these states", submits the Written Submissions filed by the Centre.

CLAIMS OF DELHI ARE MISLEADING

It goes on to state that the claims of GNCTD regarding launch of the plan in circle 63 Seemapuri is misleading as only a handful of transactions have been conducted in a single circle with about 42 ePoS machines.

"Further, unless the national portability transactions are rolled out formally in all the FPSs of all Circles of NCT Delhi, in which more than 2000 ePoS machines have been supplied and waiting for operation, it cannot be considered as implementation of ONORC".

It has also been highlighted that a large number of inter-State migrants are present across Delhi who do not have access to their NFSA foodgrains, and are not being able to take the benefit of their quota of subsidized food grains in Delhi due to lack of full implementation of ONORC as well as absence of reporting of transaction/distribution details of NFSA/PMGKAY food grains on the central portals.

ADDITIONAL FOOD SECURITY MEASURES

The Written Submissions state that additional food security measures during COVID-19 have been made available under Phase III of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna (PMGKAY-III) via which allocation of food grains have been made to all the States/UTs for free of cost distribution to all the AAY and PHH beneficiaries from Central Pool at 5 kg/person/month for two months, i.e. May and June 2021.

The scheme covers 80 crore beneficiaries and is available to all States/UTs in addition to their normal TPDS allocation as per NFSA, 2013. Its extension for five months up to November, 2021 has also been announced.

Further, various schemes have been undertaken/extended to enable all States/UTs to obtain additional quantities of food grains under the Open Market Sales Scheme (D) from FCI at subsidized rates.

"It is submitted that the Union of India is committed to make sufficient foodgrains available to the States at highly subsidized prices under the above schemes, to tide over the difficulty of food security during the current crisis, however, the responsibility of identification and distribution to the beneficiaries lies with the States/UTs".

On 11 June, the Supreme Court had observed that all States must implement the ONORC plan, which allows migrant workers to get ration benefits from any part of the country irrespective of the place where their ration card is registered, and proceeded to reserve the judgement in the Suo Moto Migrant Workers case.