Food grains not allocated to Tamil Nadu this year under ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme

Tamil Nadu excluded from 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme, leading to poor response and alternative food distribution methods.

Tamil Nadu has not been given any allocation of foodgrains under the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONOR) scheme.

This information was disclosed in reply to a question in  the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. As part of the scheme, priority household (PHH) card holders, as covered under the  National Food Security Act,  from any other State or place can draw their entitled food grains in Tamil Nadu through inter-State portability from any fair price shop of their choice after successful biometric authentication. Normally, 5% of foodgrains in excess of the State’s allocation is set apart for such cardholders. 

Giving a State-wise break-up regarding the allocation of foodgrains under ONOR, the reply by Union Minister of State for  Consumer. Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya  stated that 13.816 tonnes of foodgrains - 13.263 tonnes of rice and 0.553 tonnes of wheat - were allocated to the State during 2023-24 though nothing, as on November 25, was set aside this year. 

According to the data available on the portal of  Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS), around 22.8 tonnes of wheat and 0.036 tonnes of rice were distributed in the State under the inter-State portability arrangement in the first six months of the current financial year.  

As the response to the scheme has been poor, the civil supplies authorities manage the supply of foodgrains within the general allocation made for the State which is 2.97 lakh tonnes of rice per month. Over and above this quantity, the State draws an average 65,000 tonnes of rice every month.  As for wheat, the Centre provides approximately 8,575 tonnes a month. In addition, the State procures another 8,500 tonnes every month from National Co-operative Consumer’s Federation  (NCCF) under the Open Market Sales Scheme.

A number of factors have been attributed to the poor response to the ONOR scheme in Tamil Nadu. One among them is that as the cardholders covered under the scheme are not entitled to receive benefits - for example, tur dal and palmolein oil at concessional rates - that are given to those falling under the State government’s schemes, they do not prefer inter-State portability mode but would like to get fresh cards issued by the State Civil Supplies Department, after getting their names deleted from their original cards.