NEW DELHI: Consumers covered under the Public Distribution System (PDS) will soon be free to buy their goods from any ration centre under the 'one nation, one ration card' scheme, officials said.
"Making available cheaper foodgrain and ensuring the satisfaction of the consumers is the duty of a ration distributor. So, consumer satisfaction would be the responsibility of a PDS operator," said an official responsible for the PDS implementation. "It is possible that some distributors could gain from their behaviour as more such beneficiaries could throng particular centres."
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has set June 1, 2020 deadline for implementing the 'one nation, one card' according to which a card-holder can buy his share from anywhere in the country.
A ministry official said the plan has already been implemented at various places in more than a dozen states. He said the details of the card-holders have been made online and that point of sale (PoS) is being used to distribute ration to the beneficiaries. The Aadhaar details of all beneficiaries have also been made online, the official said.
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The deadline for linking the ration card details with that of Aadhaar cards has fixed for December 31, the official added.