Devbrat Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: Following in the footsteps of the Centre, Odisha government is planning to move towards a system of 'One Nation One Ration Card' (ONORC) next month, informed State Food and Supplies Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain today.

The move will ensure that all beneficiaries including the migrants under the National as well as State's own food security scheme, can access Public Distribution System (PDS) across the nation from any PDS shop of their own choice.

According to sources, the initiative will be initially implemented from September 1 this year for ration card holders under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and later implemented across the State.

"We are going to implement this in Bhubaneswar first on pilot basis and execute it in other places across Odisha in the next phase, as per requirement. ONORC will ensure inter-state portability of ration cards. The facility is similar to that of ATM cards, wherein beneficiaries will have access to any PDS shop they want," informed Swain.

The Food Supplies Department had earlier asked Collectors of all districts to ensure that around 34. 52 lakh beneficiaries who have not linked their Aadhar with ration cards should immediately do the same by August 31. The decision of the government came after reports of bogus beneficiaries collecting PDS items from two places with the help of separate ration cards, came to the fore.

Following this, the Minister had said that people having Aadhar card will not be deprived of the PDS and those who still don’t have the card, should apply for the biometrics ID as soon as possible.

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