Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday (December 3) announced that the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme will come into force across the country fromJ une 1, 2020.

The scheme is aimed at providing benefits to migrantlabourers and daily wagers as it will allow the eligible beneficiaries to avail their entitled food grains under the National Food Security Act from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) at subsidised rate using the same ration card.

The beneficiaries would be able to avail the entitled foodgrains after biometric/Aadhaar authentication on ePoS (electronic Point ofSale) devices. According to Paswan, the facility of inter-state portabilityunder the 'One Nation One Ration Card' initiative would be available onlythrough those FPSs which have ePoS devices.

"This system would largely benefit the numerous migrantbeneficiaries such as labourers, daily wagers, blue-collar workers etc. whofrequently change their place of dwelling in search of employment or for otherreasons across the country," Paswan said.

The Union Minister said that Prime Minister NarendraModi-led government at the Centre is also working on 'One Nation One Standard'initiative with an aim to establish harmony in standardisation activity. TheBureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been ordered by Paswan's ministry todevelop a roadmap for implementation of the initiative.

"Indian standards are harmonised with internationalstandards, wherever possible. BIS has granted about 998 licences to overseasfirms spread across about 51 countries for various products as per Indianstandards," the minister said.