JAIPUR: Activists have alleged anomalies in the selection process of the ongoing survey on below poverty line (BPL) families in Rajasthan. The survey, which has to be finalised by May 20 after the appeals, has favoured comparatively well off and influential persons in the rural areas at the cost of the poor even in the selection of the deprived, they have charged.

People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan, which had filed a public interest writ in the Supreme Court in the past, took up the BPL selection process in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan as a case study. A survey carried out by it in 9 tehsils -- Badesar, Nimbhaheda, Chittorgarh, Arnod, Pratapgarh, Begun, Kapasan, Doongla and Bari Sadri — of the district indicated that the poor families were credited with more points (decided on the basis of the land holdings, food availability, clothes, sanitation facilities and worldly possessions, to mention a few of them) than their comparatively well off neighbours.

In the first BPL list created in 1997, Rajasthan had 21 lakh families in the category in the rural areas and another 3 lakh in the urban centres. The revision work, which commenced in 2002-03, is still on though the intention of the authorities, it is feared, is to reduce the number of BPL families. A BPL card facilitates the holding family with subsidised grains, employment under relief works, free medicine and entitlement for a house under the Indira Awas Yojna, among other things.

The enumeration work, carried out by the Rural development Department through the schoolteachers, has been sloppy in most of the areas surveyed by PUCL with the help of Action Aid and Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan. "Mandatory meetings of the ward sabhas did not take place anywhere. The gram sabhas were held but without much attendance. The names in the list were read out at gram sabhas but the authorities are in no mood to make corrections or include the names left out," Khemraj Choudhary of MKS observed.

"At some places separate numbers were not given under each entry. The provisional list was not made available before the deadline for making complaints of omissions. Appeals were not investigated into before the hearings," pointed out Manas of Action Aid.

The result: The zamindar of the village gets 9 points in the score sheet while the landless Dalit, Pannalal of Bedasar, who had been a bonded labour in the past, gets 20 points. Those who are awarded above 15 points do not stand much chance to get into the BPL list.

There are many Pannalals in Chittorgarh and the case may not be different elsewhere. During a meeting with activist groups and at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur on February 22 this year Ram Lubhaya, Principal Secretary, Rural Development, Rajasthan had suggested that those who were left out should appeal. Thereafter as many as 7656 persons from nine tehsils of Chittrorgarh filed their appeals, which were initially rejected by the local authorities, before they were taken up following a directive from Jaipur.

"It is clear than the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the poor will not get a place in the BPL list in many of the districts in Rajasthan while those who can look after themselves will corner all the benefits meant for the depressed and downtrodden," Kavita Srivastava, general secretary, PUCL, Rajasthan observed talking to newspersons here. "The Governments want to wash of their hands on the poor," she charged.

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