The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Government revising BPL list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 06, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Government revising BPL list

Special Correspondent

Steps being taken to eliminate ineligible persons from the list

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government is taking steps to eliminate ineligible persons from the BPL (Below Poverty Line) list and include deserving people, Minister for Civil Supplies Adoor Prakash said here on Thursday.

The Minister said that around 15 per cent of the 20,44,672 persons in the State's BPL list were estimated to be ineligible for inclusion in the list.

The Government had issued forms to all those in the list through ration shops for making a self-declaration on their status.

Of the 8.5-lakh declarations received so far, 45,000 had voluntarily admitted that they did not belong to the BPL list.

Mr. Prakash said that the Government had drawn up some criteria for determining who was below the poverty line. People with annual income of not more than Rs.20,000 in rural areas and Rs.22,000 in urban areas from land in their possession would be treated as living below the poverty line. Agricultural workers and people engaged in animal husbandry and non-agricultural activities with same incomes would also be included in the list.

People with good houses with tiled floors would be excluded from the list besides those who are not buying their rations after inclusion in the list.

Persons using washing machine, pressure cooker, grinder, fridge, gas connection, telephone, scooter or motorcycle would not be considered as people below the poverty line. The taluk supply officer would have the power to exclude anyone from the list for bonafide reasons.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala