SC sets July 31 deadline for implementing ‘one nation one ration card’ scheme

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 29

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered all states to implement ‘one nation one ration card’ scheme by July 31 and asked the Centre to set up a portal for registering migrant workers to create a national database.

A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan also asked the Centre to allocate additional foodgrains to states as per demand raised by them for distribution among migrant workers.

The top court directed states to start appropriate schemes for distribution of dry rations to migrant workers.

It directed states/UTs to register all establishments and contractors under the Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979.

Asking states to set up community kitchens at places with high migrant workers’ concentration, it said the scheme should continue till the pandemic got over.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the court that the West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Assam governments had not implemented the ONORC scheme.

The Centre maintained that ONORC enables migratory NFSA beneficiaries to access the public distribution system (PDS) and they can lift their entitled foodgrains from any ePoS-enabled FPS in the country through portability.

The Supreme Court – which took suo motu cognisance of the plight of migrant workers during the Covid lockdown last year – had earlier pulled up the Centre for delay in creating a portal for registering migrant workers to create a national database.

It had also asked the West Bengal government to immediately implement the ONORC scheme to enable migrant workers to get ration at the place of their work in other states as well.