Bengal is said to be planning to opt out of the One-Nation-One-Ration-Card scheme that the Narendra Modi government has launched to ensure steady supply of subsidised food grains in case of changes in the residential addresses of beneficiaries.

Sources said the chief minister was averse to the “sharing of personal details” of beneficiaries as she was opposing the new citizenship matrix, especially the National Population Register.

“A file had been sent to the top brass of the government seeking permission to join hands with the Centre to launch the scheme in Bengal, but it is gathering dust. Already a dozen states have begun participating in the scheme and the remaining are likely to do so in the next few months,” a senior Nabanna official said.

According to him, the fact that the file has not been attended to is an indication that the state government might not become a part of the scheme.

“The idea was that if a beneficiary of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) moves out of his residential address, he can collect his quota of allotments from anywhere else by matching his biometric details through point-of-sale machines that will be installed in ration shops,” a source said.

Sources in the government said the scheme would have benefited a large number of labourers from Bengal who work in other states.

Bengal has 6.01 crore beneficiaries under the NFSA and primary estimates of the state government suggest that 5 to 8 per cent of them have migrated to other states, including Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh that have already joined the ration scheme, forjobs.

Several officials in the districts said they can complete the groundwork for the implementation of the scheme in a couple of months if the state government gave the go-ahead. “We are already seeding Aadhaar cards with ration cards. The data are being stored in a central server at the state level. If we decide to join the scheme, the state-level server will have to be linked to a central server,” said a district magistrate.

Trinamul insiders said the chief minister had been repeatedly telling the people of Bengal that they must not share their personal details with anybody, keeping in mind the Centre’s initiative to update the NPR across the country. “In such a situation, the state itself cannot share personal details of the beneficiaries by linking its server with the central one,” a minister said.