I guarantee that ONORC does not violate Article 371F: Upreti

KUNAL RAI

GANGTOK,: “Implementation of ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ policy does not violate the special provisions under Article 371F of Sikkim. Chief Minister P.S. Golay and the SKM government will never do anything which dilutes our Article 371F. This I guarantee,” said Food & Civil Supplies minister Arun Upreti on Thursday.
The Chief Minister had on Wednesday launched the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ (ONORC), a flagship programme of the Union government, for Sikkim.
Speaking with media here, the Food & Civil Supplies minister said the ONORC is a Union government’s programme and as per the directions of the Supreme Court, all States had to implement the ONORC by July 31, 2021. Respecting the same, we have also implemented the scheme in Sikkim, he said.
“ONORC is a system wherein ration distribution to the genuine beneficiaries would be done through a digital mode. This will prevent mismanagement of PDS items as the authorities at State and national levels will come to know about the lifting of ration by the ration card holders. It will also give information in the stock position of PDS items and its monthly consumption,” said Upreti.
The ONORC also helps the migrant workers who are ration card holders in their home States to lift their ration from the State where they are working under National Food Security Act 2013.
ONORC will not only benefit migrant workers working in Sikkim but also our citizens who are working outside the State as they can get the PDS benefit wherever they are residing, said the Food & Civil Supplies minister.
There are two schemes in place under National Food Security Act 2013 - Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority House Holds (PHH). There are around 16,500 AAY households in Sikkim who are entitled to 35 kg of rice per month at Rs. 3 per kg and a kg of sugar per head. Under PHH, there are 3,24,081 individual beneficiaries who get 5 kg of rice each at Rs. 3 per kg.
Besides ONORC, automation of Fair Price Shops (FPS) through e-POS devices had also been launched in Sikkim. The FPS automation through e-PoS devices has been categorically designed given the difficult terrain of Sikkim with three modes of distribution.
The modes are online distribution through biometric authentication of beneficiaries under NFSA 2013, fully offline distribution in the dark zone or border areas where no internet connectivity is available, and partially/hybrid distribution in the fluctuating network due to being a difficult terrain and e-POS application will automatically switch to online-offline mode as per network availability.