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BPL list: J.B. Patnaik blames Naveen for drop in number

BHUBANESWAR: Former Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in the State Assembly J.B. Patnaik on Friday said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was unnecessarily blaming the Centre for the drop in the number of families included in the below poverty line (BPL) list.

In a statement, he blamed the Naveen Patnaik Government for the decrease in the number of BPL families in the list of 2002. “The Chief Minister was engaging his party workers to hold demonstrations against the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre while he was himself responsible for the decrease in the number of BPL families,” the Opposition leader said.

He clarified that as per the BPL list prepared by the then Congress government in the State in 1997, there were a total of 44,93,000 BPL families in the State.

The next BPL survey was conducted by the State government in 2002 when the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance was in power the State and the National Democratic Alliance was in power at the Centre, he said.

The BPL list prepared by the BJD-BJP government in 2002 had in it a total of 28,73,800 families.

The Planning Commission had then increased the number to 31,48,400 as per a new formula and subsequently added extra 10 per cent taking the total to 34,63,240.

The list, however, was not implemented due to certain restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court.

After the restrictions were lifted, the then Panchayati Raj Minister had announced that the new list would be implemented by March 31, 2006, the Opposition leader said.

Stating that the State government had not been able to implement the new list till date, the Opposition Leader said that the Naveen Patnaik Government should not blame the UPA Government at the Centre when their government was in power from 2002 to 2004.

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