One nation one ration card - Portability of Ration cards

"One nation one ration card programme" - a good step in the direction of Uninersal food security.

It will not work in present COVID19 scenario. Everything will be same as it would have been without  this programme. 

I don't think a migrants will carry ration card with them to another state. I guess ration cards will be left with families back home in their native states. Correct me if my common sense is failing me. 

Just in case the government thinks this is a extra ordinary situation, it should take extra ordinary measures like distributing  grains for free. 

No one feels so great to stand in lines for hours and get food which is a basic right. 

If we even care to listen to these migrants, we will know that they will stop feeling restless if they get some cash into their hands. They will stop feeling restless if they get food easily, not after waiting in sun for hours risking to get infected. 

I have an idea..

Just forget about targeted PDS for a few months. 

We can allow former employers to give away reusable food tokens tagged with IDs to labour and other needy employees collected from district administration. Most employers wont eat that grain themselves. 

Monitoring distributors for pilferage and incentivising free distribution with some hinororium will help a little. 

If you can't trust the fair price shops or ration shops,  asign the job to experienced NGOs. I think DMs can manage the task. They can disincentivise hoarding by the non-needy by distributing smaller quantities. A lot of time will be saved that would have otherwise been consumed for precise accounting ( precisse weighing, identifyingbthe beneficiary, making sure the beneficiary is not benefited twice etc would be done away with)

Something like this should have been announced a lot earlier. 

Its sheer apathy and recklessness that is causing migrants to choose to walk back hundreds of kms taking huge risks and causing tremendous loss to the economy. 

May be govt loses a quite a bit of food to those not in need(which can be mininised with proper monitoring). But it does lot of good to the needy and the nation. I am sure the food will not rot.