Delhi starts rolling out Union govt’s ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Delhi starts rolling out Union govt’s ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme

ByAbhishek Dey, New Delhi
Apr 15, 2021 03:15 AM IST

The order was issued on Monday under directions from Delhi food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain.

The Delhi government has implemented the Centre’s ‘one nation, one ration card’ policy in Seemapuri, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The development comes weeks after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government got into a tussle with the Centre after the latter objected to the state government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme.(Raj K Raj/HT Archive)
The development comes weeks after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government got into a tussle with the Centre after the latter objected to the state government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme.(Raj K Raj/HT Archive)

The order was issued on Monday under directions from Delhi food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain. “‘One nation, one ration card’ scheme and portability option may be launched in fair price shops in Seemapuri circle and new fair price shops will be set up for doorstep delivery of food grains under the National Food Security Act on pilot basis,” said the order, a copy of which HT has seen.

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The development comes weeks after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government got into a tussle with the Centre after the latter objected to the state government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme. While the Delhi government has dropped the word “Mukhyamantri (chief minister)” from the name of the scheme, its implementation still remains uncertain.

Besides the nomenclature of the scheme, the Centre had also objected to the Delhi government changing the mode of delivery of ration being provided under the National Food Security Act, which, it said, is not possible without amending the law.

In its letter on March 19, red-flagging the proposed doorstep ration delivery scheme in Delhi, a copy of which HT has seen, the central government also asked the Delhi government why it had still not implemented the “one nation, one ration card” policy.

The doorstep ration delivery scheme, too, was supposed to be launched in Seemapuri circle on March 25. The circle has 42 fair price shops, out of total 2,050 functional ration shops in Delhi.

The senior Delhi government official quoted above said that since the implementation of the scheme on Monday, 38 ration card holders from other states – 19 of them from Bihar, 18 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Jharkhand -- have availed its benefit.

Under the ‘one nation, one ration card’ policy, which was launched in 2019, a person holding a ration card issued under the National Food Security Act, 2013, can collect their monthly quota of food grains from any fair price shop in the country.

The policy has so far been implemented in 17 states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and UP

Earlier this month, the Delhi government also started delivering ration with biometric e-PoS machines under a pilot project.

The e-POS mechanism was discontinued in Delhi in 2018 based on complaints that many elderly or those who could not reach the shops were being deprived of their share due to technical glitches.

A Delhi government spokesperson did not comment on the matter .

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