Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Minister tells grama sabhas to identify BPL families

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty has directed the panchayats to summon grama sabhas for identifying the list of the poor and very poor families in their purview.

Mr. Kutty said in a statement here on Saturday that all poor families would be eligible for the benefits of the State government and the local self-government institutions (LSGIs), but the benefits of the Centre would be confined to the very poor families alone. The Cabinet had approved the norms for identifying both categories in the rural areas.

The Centre had issued the guidelines for preparing the list of beneficiaries for its schemes from the Tenth Plan onwards and 16.25 lakh families were identified in the below poverty line (BPL) category. A survey for preparing a list of BPL families began in 2003. Later, the Centre insisted on revising the BPL list from the Tenth Plan for providing benefits. The norms laid by the Centre were not relevant for the State. When the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government assumed office, it mounted pressure on the Centre against reducing the number of BPL families and the Assembly passed an unanimous resolution. The Centre, in a letter to Mr. Kutty, clarified that the number of BPL families cannot be reconsidered. The details secured through the survey were scrutinised with the assistance of Kudumbasree.

The government revised the norms for preparing the list in tune with the unique conditions of the State and it was approved by the Centre. The Cabinet has directed the grama sabhas to scrutinise the list of the poor and very poor families. As many as 21.30 lakh families would come under the BPL category. A separate list of 11.37 lakh very poor families would be prepared as per the Cabinet decision. The remaining 9.93 lakh families will be bracketed as poor, but only the very poor will be eligible for the benefits of the Centre.

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