The Hindu : National : Protesting AIDWA activists enter the Yojana Bhavan

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Protesting AIDWA activists enter the Yojana Bhavan

Special Correspondent

Method of identifying BPL families questioned

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Making themselves heard: AIDWA activists led by Brinda Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, demonstrating inside the Planning Commission complex in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Activists of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) entered the Planning Commission building here on Tuesday during a demonstration. They were protesting against the methodology for identifying Below Poverty Line (BPL) families which allegedly “excluded” a large number of people.

They forced their way into Yojana Bhavan, demanding to meet the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

However, since he was away, a 10-member delegation, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, met the two members and submitted a memorandum.

Earlier, addressing a convention, Ms. Karat said the recent debt relief for farmers announced by the Union Finance Minister in the budget proposals was an outcome of the continuous efforts of the Left parties to draw the attention of the Government away from the stock market and towards the rural countryside.

“While the loan waiver is a welcome step, the Government needs to provide some relief to those farmers who have borrowed from private moneylenders.”

She cited the example of the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala that had set up a Debt Relief Commission to address the problems of farmers, including those who had taken loans from private moneylenders. The budget had not addressed the issue of price rise and the Planning Commission now seemed to be contemplating depriving above poverty line families of PDS food grains.

A resolution was moved by AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman, demanding an end to the ‘policy of targeting.’ It documented the manner in which ‘unfair and unjust’ BPL criteria were used to divide the poor, depriving them access to health, education, pension, housing and other schemes apart from food grain. She demanded the use of realistic criteria by the Planning Commission to estimate poverty, restoration of the universalised PDS and the removal of the BPL criteria.

The convention was inaugurated by Utsa Patnaik, who made a strong case for reverting to the pre-1997 universal PDS. In the neo-liberal era of food production, the country had been geared towards exports, instead of catering to domestic food requirements, she said. The matter was also raised in the Lok Sabha during zero hour when Sati Devi (CPI-M) member criticised the UPA government for not fulfilling its commitment to universalisation of PDS.

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