The Central Government has launched the inter-state portability of ration cards between Telangana-Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra-Gujarat as a pilot project to implement “One Nation, One Ration Card” across India by June 1, 2020.

This means beneficiaries living in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh can buy their quota of ration from the Public Distribution System (PDS), also called ration shops, in either of the states. Similar would be the case in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Meanwhile, seven states — Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab,
Rajasthan and Tripura — at present are testing intra-portability of ration card, which means beneficiaries can lift their quota of ration from any PDS located within a state.

By January 2020, these 11 states will be formed as one grid where ration card will be made portable. It means beneficiaries can buy ration from any one of these 11 states.

About NFSA 2013:

Under the NFSA or National Food Security Act, 2013, subsidized food grains are provided to approximately two-thirds of India’s population. It is also known as also the Right to Food Act.

At present, under the PDS provisions of NFSA, the government supplies 5 kg of subsidised foodgrains to each person per month to over 81 crore people through 5,00,000 ration shops across the country. It costs the exchequer about ₹1.4 lakh crore per annum. The consumers have to pay ₹3/kg for rice, ₹2/kg for wheat and ₹1/kg for coarse grains under this act.