Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday informed that the states and the Union Territories have been given a deadline of one year till June 30, 2020, for rolling out the 'one nation, one ration card' system.

Under this system, beneficiaries can buy subsidised foodgrains from ration shops in any part of the country.

"By next June 30, 2020, 'one nation, one ration card' should be implemented without fail in the entire country. We have written letters to the state government to fast track the implementation of this system," Paswan said during a media interaction.

"The new mechanism will ensure that no poor are deprived of PDS entitlement if that person shifts from one place to another. The system will also help remove fake ration card holders," Paswan added.

The Union Minister further informed that already 10 states- Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Tripura – are providing portability of Public Distribution System (PDS) entitlements.

He further said there are 11 states, including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, which can easily implement the PDS portability within their state as Point of Sale (PoS) machines have been installed in all ration shops.