NEW DELHI: The central government has told the Supreme Court that Delhi government’s claim
regarding the launch of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONORC) plan is “misleading” as a large number of migrant workers are unable to take the benefit of subsidised National Food Security Act (NFSA) food grains in Delhi as there is no full implementation.
In its affidavit before the apex court, the Centre said the AAP government has implemented one nation-one ration card plan only in circle 63 Seemapuri.
“It is submitted that the claim of GNCTD regarding launch of One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan in NCT of Delhi is misleading, as they claim to have implemented it only in circle 63 Seemapuri. Only a handful of transactions conducted in single circle with about 42 ePoS machines cannot be considered as implementation of ONORC."
"Further, unless the national portability transactions are rolled out formally in all the Fair Price Shops of all Circles of NCT Delhi, in which more than 2,000 Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) machines have been supplied, it cannot be considered as implementation of ONORC,” the affidavit stated.
The Centre said that a very large number of inter-state migrants in Delhi who do not have access to their NFSA food grains, being away from their own villages/hometowns, are not able to take the benefit of their quota of subsidised food grains as there is no full implementation of ONORC.
The onus of implementing the ONORC plan was on states, it said. It said that while most states were implementing the ONORC, four of them — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal — have not yet integrated into the scheme and it would depend on their “technical readiness” to implement the portability of ration cards.
The Centre said that it has extended the scheme for food grains for all the beneficiaries, who are not covered under NFSA and to whom ration cards have been issued by the state Governments under their own scheme at the rate of 5 kg per person per month.
“The Union of India is committed to make sufficient food grains available to the states at highly subsidised prices, to tide over the difficulty of food security, however, the responsibility of distribution to the beneficiaries lies with the States,” the affidavit said.