The central government’s “one nation, one ration card” initiative will come into force across India from June 1, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan told Parliament on Tuesday, PTI reported. Eligible beneficiaries will be able to avail food grains under the National Food Security Act from any fair price shop in the country using the same ration card.

Paswan said the beneficiaries will be eligible to do this only after biometric or Aadhaar authentication on electronic point-of-sale devices at fair price shops.

“The facility of inter-state portability under this initiative would be available only through the FPSs [fair price shops] having fully online ePoS [electronic Point of Sale] devices,” Paswan said in response to a question posed by Satna MP Ganesh Singh.

“This system would largely benefit the numerous migratory beneficiaries such as labourers, daily wagers, blue-collar workers, etc. who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of employment or for other reasons across the country,” he added. The ministry has also asked the Bureau of Indian Standards to develop a roadmap to implement the initiative.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that the Centre did not plan to create a single card for all utilities. He was responding to a question posed by Congress MP from Palakkad, Kerala, VK Sreekandan.

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