Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday continued her press conference for the second day in a row to give more details about the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how it would be distributed to the people of India.
The second press conference focused on migrant workers, small farmers, street vendors, the finance minister announced. "Three steps for migrant workers, one related to street vendors, one for housing, one for tribal employment, and two related to small farmers is the highlight of this press briefing," Nirmala Sitharaman said.
While addressing the plight of migrant workers, she said that the labourers remain the most affected during these times. To help the migrant labourers, government has decided to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card scheme, she said.
"One Nation One Ration Card will be implemented- 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states covering 83% of PDS population will be covered by national portability by August 2020," said Nirmala Sitharaman while addressing the media.
Further, 100% national portability will be achieved by March, 2021, she says.
Sitharaman said that technology systems will be used for "One Nation, One Ration card" which will enable migrants to access Public Distribution System (Ration) from any Fair Price Shop in India by March 2021.
She further said that families of migrant are not able to access food in other states and hence this scheme will enable migrant works to have access to Public Distribution System from any Fair Price Shop in the country irrespective of the state they are in. She said that Intra-State portability has been introduced in 20 states so far.
Sitharaman says that this scheme is part of the PM Modi's technology-driven system reforms.
With this, she says, 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states, covering 83% of PDS population, will be covered by August, 2020.
