New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS): The states of Manipur, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have also been integrated into the National Portability for ration cards, which already had 20 states/UTs on board.

Now, 24 states/UTs are connected under 'One Nation, One Ration Card' (ONORC) from August 1, 2020, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Saturday.

Around 65 crore (80%) of total NFSA beneficiaries are now potentially covered to receive food grains in these 24 states/UTs wherever they live in the country. The remaining states/UTs are also likely to be integrated into national portability by March 2021, said the statement.

As per its statement, Minister for Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan recently reviewed the progress of the scheme, which earlier had Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh on board apart from these four.

"The 'One Nation, One Ration Card' is an ambitious endeavour to ensure delivery of food security entitlements to all beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013, irrespective of their physical location in the country, by implementing nationwide portability of ration cards under the ongoing central sector scheme on 'Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS)' in association with all states/UTs, " said the Ministry.

Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employment etc now have the option to buy/lift their quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop of their choice anywhere in the country by using their same/existing ration card through biometric/Aadhaar Card authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the shops, said the statement.