THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has sought creation of a Peninsular Railway Zone, Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, who also holds charge of Railways, told the Assembly on Thursday.Responding to a calling attention motion by K.M. Mani (Kerala Congress-M), the Minister said the Prime Minister and Railway Minister promised to consider the State's request favourably.

The State had made it clear that it was not keen about having the headquarters of the Zone in Kerala. It also pleaded with the Centre to reconsider the decision to bifurcate the Palakkad Railway Division. The Prime Minister and the Railway Minister promised to view the demand favourably and to convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to discuss the issue. His information was that the letters had already been sent to the Chief Ministers regarding the meeting, Mr. Vijayakumar said.

BPL list

Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty told V. Sivankutty (CPI-M) that the State had no other go but to prepare below poverty line (BPL) family list according to the norms laid down by the Centre. Only this list would be valid in the case of Centrally-sponsored schemes. The State is free to have its own list for its schemes, but this would not be applicable to the Central schemes, he said.

Mr. Mohammed Kutty said the new list prepared as directed by the Centre would have only 10.26 lakh families below poverty line against the 38 lakh persons whom the State had identified as being poor in 1998.

The 29-point questionnaire prepared by the Centre had to be adhered to while revising the BPL family list.

There was the possibility of several eligible families getting excluded from the list and many ineligible ones getting included in it. The State Government decided to review the details regarding 35.4 lakh families who had been surveyed.

The review is being conducted with the help of Neighbourhood Groups.

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