NASHIK: Aadhaar-linked beneficiaries under the Food Security Act (FSA) can now avail ration from any part of the state, except for a few areas, without the need for a ration card. The scheme still awaits formal inauguration.Citizens can now get benefit from the FSA by going to any part of the state and still get the valid quantity of foodgrains from the fair price shop (FPS), even without the ration card. However, this is only if the beneficiary knows the Aadhaar number and it is linked to the ration card at the parent FPS “Henceforth, beneficiaries going to any part of the state can access their quota of foodgrains just by providing their Aadhaar number, paying the price for the same and authenticating the transaction with the biometric system. If they have a ration card, it is well and good,” a senior officer from the supply department said.There are 42 offices of the supply departments — 36 are district supply offices (DSO) and six are food supply offices (FDO). Of this, 30 DSOs and FDOs were linked under portability. The portability is likely to be announced in a month’s time.“This will work in two ways — one is to ensure labourers travelling across the cities, districts in search of job do not have to forcibly buy food from the open market and secondly the poor performing fair price shops (FPS) will face the brunt,” the officer said.In all villages, wherever there are multiple numbers of FPS, the consumer will now decide which FPS to choose. “At times there could be a strain on a well performing FPS as more consumers would throng this shop. This will happen at the start, but after a gap of month or so, the supply department will take counter measures to ensure that the supply is not affected,” the officer added.This is basically helping labourers, even when they migrate to cities for work in the summer. “I have come from Surgana taluka in the district. Otherwise we are forced to buy goods at market rate. Now with the portability in place, we are able to buy goods in our ration from the FPS in the city as well. This lowers our burden on food during our stay here. Also, our food quota is not used during the month when there is nobody back home,” said Ramsing Pawra, a Surgana taluka resident, who is currently staying at Sapur.In the Nashik division Nandurbar, Dhule and Jalgaon districts have still not been linked to the portability due to some technical issues. But that will also happen soon.

Stay updated with all the Latest Nashik headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.