Parliament Question: One Nation One Ration Card

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA M[NISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1151 TO BE ANSWERED ON IOTll FEBRUARY, 2026 ONE NATION ONE RATION CARD 1151: SHRI IRANNA KADADI:

Will the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution be pleased to state

(a): the number of migrant workers in the industrial and construction sectors of Belagavi who have availed ration under the ONORC scheme;

(b): details of the e-PoS device functioning and biometric authentication success rate in the Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the district;

(c): the measures taken to ensure the availability of foodgrains for the floating population in the city;

(d): the status of the ’Mera Ration' mobile app usage among the beneficiaries; and

(e): the steps taken to weed out ineligible ration cards and include the genuine poor families in the district? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA)

(a): ONORC is operational in all States and Union Territories and is a feature available to PMGKAY beneficiaries. As per data available since August 2018, in the State of Karnataka, a

total of: • 4 inter-State portability transactions, and • 5,95,45,014 intra-State portability transactions have been recorded under ONORC.

Further, in the month of December 2025, 64100 ration cards transacted using ONORC in Belagavi district of Karnataka State. These transactions include migrant workers and their families who have accessed subsidised foodgrains away from their place of original registration.

District-wise segregation of beneficiaries by occupation is not centrally maintained.

(b): in Belagavi district, out of a total of 1,901 Fair Price Shops, 1,886 FPSs are operational with e-PoS devices, reflecting an operational coverage of 99.2%.

Foodgrain distribution at these FPSs is carried out primarily through biometric/Aadhaar authentication, ensuring transparency, accurate delivery of entitlements, and prevention ofdiversion.

(c): The Government has taken multiple measures to ensure uninterrupted availability of foodgrains for the floating and migrant population, including: • 99.9% Aadhaar seeding of ration cards nationwide, enabling portability and authentication-based access Full implementation of ONORC, which records an average of around 3 crore portability • transactions per month nationwide, demonstrating wide acceptance and effective coverage of migrant populations.

Seamless integration of e-PoS devices at FPSs, allowing beneficiaries to lift their • entitlements from any location without disruption.

These measures ensure that migrant and floating populations in urban and industrial centres such as Belagavi can access foodgrains without exclusion.

(d): The Mera Ration mobile application has been widely adopted by beneficiaries across the country, with over 1 crore downloads nationwide.

(e): To ensure rightful targeting under NFS A and PMGKAY, the Department has developed a Rightful Targeting Dashboard based on multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including identification of deceased beneficiaries, duplicate beneficiaries, beneficiaries with high income or vehicle ownership, beneficiaries with high gross turnover and silent beneficiaries.

In Belagavi district, the dashboard has flagged 55,825 beneficiaries for verification. Based on field verification conducted by the State Government, 18,427 ineligible beneficiaries have been deleted from the database. This process ensures removal of ineligible beneficiaries while safeguarding and including genuinely eligible poor households.

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