Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday (January 20) said that the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme will be implemented by June 1 across the country.Paswan announced that the scheme has already been launched in 16 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tripura, Gujarat and Jharkhand. He,however, added that the scheme is still to be launched in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

According to Paswan, 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme will provide benefits to labourers and poor across the country. He added that81 crore people will benefit from this scheme because they will receive wheat atRs 2 per kg and rice at Rs 3 per kg. The Union minister noted that under this scheme a beneficiary will be allowed to use the same ration card to avail benefits across the country. The scheme is aimed at providing benefits to migrant labourers 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 food grains after biometric/Aadhaar authentication on ePoS (electronic Point ofSale) devices. According to Paswan, the facility of inter-state portability under the 'One Nation One Ration Card' initiative would be available only through those FPSs which have ePoS devices.