One Nation, One Ration: Will we benefit, ask Tamilians

As a show of its commitment to extending “Ease of Living” to the poorest of the poor, the government is set to launch “One Nation One Ration Card’ programme on a war footing. Policy watchers see this as a part of 100-days agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 2.0.

Under this scheme, portability of food security benefits will be available to poor migrant workers across the country by July 1, next year. This will allow migrant labourers who have moved away from their home state to still buy subsidised rice, wheat and commodities that the government may add to the list, from any ration shop of their choice from across India, based on their single-ration card linked to Aadhaar card.

Migrants can show their Aadhaar card to buy foodgrains from any ration shop in the country. Only ration card will suffice if beneficiaries want to get their PDS entitlement only from a particular registered ration shop.

Making the announcement on June 29, 2019, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan, said “Work on linking  ration cards with Aadhaar cards and organising food grain distribution mechanism in its entirety through Point of Sale (PoS) machines is in the final stage.”

There is a general misconception among the people in Tamil Nadu, no doubt fuelled by political opposition to the policy, that this policy has been envisaged to protect the interests of the large number of migrant workers from the northern states that throng Tamil Nadu in search of work. Says one PDS outlet employee at Mandavelipakkam, “not many Tamilians go out of the state, so this is simply to benefit people from outside.”

Rice, the staple food in Tamil Nadu, is provided free to all categories of beneficiaries in the state, as opposed to the Rs 3 to Re 1 per kg charged by other states.

A senior Ministry official clarified that migrants would only be eligible for the subsidies supported by the Centre, which include rice sold at Rs 3 and wheat at Rs 2 per kg. If a beneficiary moved to a state where grains are free, that person would not be able to access those benefits, as they were funded by the state exchequer.

The ration-card will bear the name and details of the original local PDS of his home state, but the migrant worker will be able to use it anywhere in India.  

Since the migrant workers do hard manual work and with metal equipment, their hardened fingertips fail to crack the biometrics driven PDS systems. They can show any of the papers required for casting their vote as a document to the PDS shop along with their ration card code, and claim their quota of grain anywhere in the country. Their family can claim their share of PDS quota from their village PDS outlet. Their respective shares will be given to them, as displayed in their ration card.

For any redressal of grievances or reporting malpractices at PDS outlet, a national universal helpline number would be functional from July 1, next year.

Right now, the PDS details of every person is on the stand alone server of his state. This data will have to be migrated to the national server to make the portability possible between states. From August 15, interstate portability between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is possible, and also between Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Tamil Nadu follows Universal PDS, which means that all beneficiaries will be eligible to receive free rice and other commodities at subsidised rates through the PDS network even though the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013, categorises households depending upon income and also charges rice and wheat supply. 

A state government GO issued in 2016 clarified that the NFSA would come into effect in Tamil Nadu from November 1, 2016, but that in Tamil Nadu, PDS beneficiaries would get 5 kg rice per person, (including child), per month, while ensuring that the previous entitlement is not reduced. 

The GO also stated that the upper limit of 20 kg would be removed. Thus, in a family of three adults and two children, the monthly entitlement would be 25 kg, thus there will be no upper limit, but will be given as per number of members in the family. The Central government allocates 2.96 lakh metric tons of rice to the state, which is not enough to cover universal PDS. The state government, therefore, sources the additional requirement on its own. 

It is widely expected that the new policy will implement measures to curb the corruption that is prevalent in the PDS system. Currently, beneficiaries pick up the commodity they are entitled to from the fair price shop using their smart ration card which is swiped on the point of sale device. This records the entire transaction and updates the documents in the system. Simultaneously, a message goes out to the beneficiary’s mobile phone, with details of which commodity was bought and in what quantity. 

“Sometimes, we don’t get our whole quota of rice. My family is entitled to 20 kg of rice a month, but at times I get only 10 kg. They just say that they have no stock,”says one buyer. 

“I only pick up 5 kg per month,” says another buyer. “The quality of rice is not very good. I use it for a few things, but I buy good quality rice from the market for regular use.” Most of the buyers DT Next spoke to, felt that the quality of palm oil, sugar and toor dal was quite good. Another problem is that card holders who do not pick up a certain commodity do not declare that they will not buy it. As a result, unscrupulous elements sell off the remaining stock in the black market.

One employee at a fair price shop says that most people who hold the Priority Household Card (AAY) are not aware of their entitlement. An official at the Chintadripet PDS outlet says, “I know that the cap on upper limit has been removed. But not many people are aware of this, so they don’t ask. And I stick to the original allocation.” A customer at the outlet said that other products such as salt, chilli and fenugreek from government undertakings are also stored. Usually, buyers opt for them, but in certain outlets, unaware buyers are forced to buy the products along with their PDS quota. 

At another outlet in the same area, an official said that he distributes 15 kg of rice and 5 kg of wheat per card, where the buyer does not demand the full quota of they are entitled to.

Currently, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura are 10 states where 100 per cent PoS machines have been arranged for grain distribution and all PDS shops have been connected to the Internet. Beneficiaries here can take grain from any public distribution system shop in that state through Integrated Management of PDS (IMPDS).

Instructions have already been issued to the state government to ensure that special arrangements are made for distribution of ration to the migrant population within the next two months in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other cities in Maharashtra.

During the minister’s Q&A session with media, it was revealed that so far, Aadhaar cards of about 89 per cent of beneficiaries have been linked with the system, while 77 per cent of ration shops have installed PoS machines. As many as 22 states have 100 per cent PoS coverage and there is no problem in implementing the new system and more than 85 per cent of people covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) have their cards linked to Aadhaar.