New Delhi, Mar 12 (IANS): With an aim to extend the benefits of One Nation, One Ration Card scheme (ONORC), Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey launched 'Mera Ration' mobile app. As of now, the app is in Hindi and English but soon it will be available in 14 Indian languages.

While speaking to the reporters on the occasion he said, "This app will benefit especially those ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods."

He said that the scheme which was started initially in four states in August 2019 and has been swiftly rolled out, in a very short span of time, in 32 states/UTs by December 2020. The integration of remaining four states/UT (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal) is expected to be completed in next few months.

Pandey said that at present, the scheme covers nearly 69 crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries (about 86 per cent NFSA population) in the country and a monthly average of about 1.5-1.6 crore portability transactions are being recorded under ONORC.

He said that the ONORC has proved to be a tremendous value-added service to each NFSA beneficiary during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly migrants, which allowed them to avail the benefit of subsidised foodgrains with flexibility from any location wherever they were during the lockdown/crisis period.

The ONORC scheme is being implemented by the Department for the nation-wide portability of ration cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA). This system allows all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, to claim either full or part foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through an existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner. The system also allows their family members back home, if any, to claim the balance foodgrains on the same ration card.