The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Let States fix norms of BPL family’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

‘Let States fix norms of BPL family’

Special Correspondent

C. Divakaran

NEW DELHI: Kerala Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran on Tuesday urged the Centre to allow State governments the freedom to fix their own parameters for identifying Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Mr. Diwakaran put forth this case at a meeting with Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Briefing mediapersons later, Mr. Divakaran said by the Centre’s calculation, Kerala had only 14 lakh BPL families. But, Kerala’s estimate was in the vicinity of 30 lakh. As per a 2002 survey by the State, the number was 20 lakh families but a recent study put the figure around 30 lakh, he said.

Since Kerala Government has been providing rations to 20 lakh families by reducing the quota for each family, the State has urged the Centre to meet the gap. As against the stipulated 35 kg of foodgrains that should be given to each BPL household per month, the State gives 25 kg per household in order to reach out to the 20 lakh BPL families.

Further, the Minister said the Prime Minister’s Office had assured him that LPG shortage would be addressed in a couple of weeks. Stating that part of the shortage was due to diversion of LPG for commercial use, he said the State government had asked oil firms to submit monthly lists of supply to gas agencies to identify diversions.

Mr. Divakaran also sought Central aid for modernising fair price shops. The State government has prepared a Rs. 57 crore project for modernising 14,000 outlets and wants the Centre to meet a third of the cost.

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