New Delhi: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that AAP governments claim regarding the launch of One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan is misleading as a large number of migrants workers are unable to take the benefit of subsidised National Food Security Act (NFSA) foodgrains in Delhi as there is no full implementation. In its affidavit filed before the top court, the Union government 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 2000 Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) machines have been supplied and waiting for operation, it cannot be considered as implementation of ONORC," the affidavit stated. The Centre said that a very large number of inter-state migrants are present all across Delhi who do not have access to their NFSA foodgrains, being away from their own villages/hometowns, are not able to take the benefit of their quota of subsidised foodgrains 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. "It is submitted that the Union of India is committed to make sufficient foodgrains available to the States at highly subsidised prices under the above schemes, to tide over the difficulty of food security during the current crisis, however, the responsibility of identification and distribution to the beneficiaries lies with the States/UTs. "All the States/UTs have been advised through the communications dated May 20, 2021 and May 25, 2021, to avail their requirements of foodgrains through the mentioned schemes, to provide food grains to those who are not covered under the NFSA including migrants/ stranded migrants, as per locally assessed requirements," the affidavit said. In a message to the states and UTs, the top court on June 11 had said they must implement the ONORC scheme as it allows migrant workers to get ration at the place of their work in other states as well where their ration cards are not registered. The top court had also taken strong note of the delay in development of a software meant to register workers of unorganized sector to create a national database and posed queries to the Centre as to how the benefit of free food grain till November this year under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna would reach to migrant labourers having no ration cards.

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