Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card impossible: APFPSDWA

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh Fair Price Shop Dealers Welfare Association (APFPSDWA) while terming "Impossible" to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) in a State like Arunachal Pradesh opposed the new scheme brought by the government of India.

Addressing the mediapersons, at the press club here on Friday, APFPSDWA general secretary Tarh Miri said that due to bad road connectivity and poor network accessibility in the State, the implementation of ONORC and e-POS (Point of Service) device machine deployed to Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the State under National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries on ground is impossible.

He said that most of the process of Aadhar card seeding is not completed in the various remote districts of State to maintain e-POS machine operational. Even the road communication and telecom network service is very poor in most of the districts to maintain the system of ONORC policy, he added.

"The e-POS machine installation is being executed by the "Jio" company which can be assumed by anyone that the internet of the network company is not accessible in most of the districts of state," he said, adding that most of the FPS owners are uneducated to work on new technology.

Miri also informed that the FPS owners during the training programme on e-POS machine installation have also raised concern over its practicality on the ground.

"We also request the state government to release the margin commission of the FPS dealers as per the guidelines of NFSA. It is very unfortunate that our FPS owners are not given a single margin for their distribution effort," Miri said.

He said that the State government should at least provide Rs 30,000 salary to the FPS owners of the State. We have been effortlessly working in the public interest despite facing problems to sustain our own livelihood, he added.

The association also added that, the FPS dealers are provided with specific quantities of foodgrains. If everyone from other parts of the country starts availing the benefit, what will be dealers provide to those who are actual beneficiaries of the FPS.

The association in a memorandum submitted to the chief secretary on Friday has sought to review the ONORC and operationalization of the e-POS machine deployed in the State.

Under the ONORC, eligible beneficiaries will be able to avail their entitled food grains under the NFSA from any FPS in the country using the same ration card.