Kolkata: The state government is implementing One Nation One Ration Card with immediate effect for the purpose of portability in the distribution of subsidised foodgrains to eligible ration card holders under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The move is to ensure that migrant labourers are able to obtain their share of ration from any part of the country.
"We will initiate a new module — Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) — at the ePOS machine for the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card. Transactions are to be made by mandatory biometric verification in two attempts. If that fails, mobile verification has to be made and if even that fails, the unverified transaction will be done," an official in the Food and Supplies department said.
A video conference regarding the implementation of the project was held by senior officials of the state Food & Supplies department with all stakeholders, including the ration dealers' federation. It was stated that there will be tagged beneficiaries and untagged beneficiaries in the case of the IMPDS module.
The tagged beneficiary would include beneficiaries of Bengal while untagged ones would cover those from other states. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding the transaction process will be shared soon. There will be separate login for IMPDS modules besides the Public Distribution System one. The other states' beneficiaries must bring Aadhaar cards and ration cards for obtaining the foodgrains. The dealer will put the other state beneficiary ration card or the Aadhaar number to proceed. A maximum of 50 percent foodgrains will be provided to other state beneficiaries at a time. The dealer will have to check whether the beneficiary is obtaining ration from another state. If so done, the deducted stock will be shown.
"There has been confusion among a section of ration dealers regarding the directions in Friday's video conference as the Aadhaar seeding with ration cards for all the beneficiaries has not yet been over," Biswambhar Basu, general secretary of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealers' Federation, said. The department has also directed the ration dealers to mandatorily make all transactions through online mode with effect from August 2 reiterating that there should not be any offline transaction.