The government has launched the ‘Mera Ration’ mobile app to benefit citizens in identifying the nearest fair price shop. This is a step to facilitate the One Nation-One Ration Card system in the country.
Key Points
- This app will especially benefit those ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods.
- The app has been developed by the government in collaboration with NIC with an aim to facilitate various ONORC related services among National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, FPS dealers, and other relevant stakeholders.
- Implementation of the One Nation-One Ration Card system ensures availability of ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially the migrant workers and their families, at any fair price shop (FPS) across the country.
- On this occasion, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution, said that the ONORC, system which was started on August 19 in 4 States, has been rolled out in 32 States/UTs by December 2020 and the integration of the remaining 4 States/UT (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and West Bengal) is expected to be completed in next few months.
- The system at present covers nearly 69 Crore NFSA beneficiaries (about 86% NFSA population) in the country and a monthly average of about 1.5 to 1.6 Crore portability transactions are being recorded under ONORC.
Features of Mera Ration App
- Beneficiaries will be able to identify and locate the nearest fair price shop.
- Beneficiaries will be able to check details of their recent transactions, foodgrain entitlement, and also the status of Aadhaar seeding.
- Migrant beneficiaries will be able to register their migration details through the application.
- The app also provides an option for beneficiaries to enter suggestions/feedback.
- The Mera Ration app is presently available in English and Hindi and more languages will be added later.
One Nation One Ration Card System
As per the finance ministry, 17 states have operationalized the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ system and Uttarakhand is the latest state to complete the reform. States completing the One Nation-One Ration Card system reform are eligible for additional borrowing of 0.25 percent of gross state domestic product (GSDP). The government provides 5 kg of subsidized food grains to each person per month through 5.4 lakh ration shops.
In May 2020, the Government of India enhanced the borrowing limit of the states by 2 percent of their GSDP to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of this special dispensation (1 percent of GSDP) was linked to undertaking citizen-centric reforms by the states. The four citizen-centric areas for reforms identified by the Department of Expenditure were implementation of ease of doing business reform; the One Nation-One Ration Card system; the urban local body and utility reforms; and power sector reforms.
