Dushyant, Kiran spar over BPL guidelines

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 17

Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Congress MLA from Tosham Kiran Choudhry took potshots at each other during question hour today.

Kiran asked the question whether there was any proposal under consideration to revise the norms for below poverty line (BPL) lists and if so, the details thereof. While replying to her query, Chautala told the House that the annual income limit of any member of the family was revised from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh in December 2019 and there was no further proposal to revised the norms now.

Kiran said since the government had started making Parivar Pehchan Patras where the income of the entire family was also being asked, she wanted to know whether people with family income of more than Rs 1.80 lakh would lose their BPL cards.

Chautala said while the BJP-JJP government was striving hard to increase the family income of people, the Congress leader was still stuck on her party’s 60 year-old agenda of keeping people poor so that they remain dependent on government’s benevolence.

He said the PPP scheme was aimed at identifying families who needed help under the government’s schemes.

At another occasion, Kiran Choudhry said the government should devise new initiatives to improve governance and claimed she took several such steps when she was in power.

To this, Chautala took a dig at her saying that if the Congress MLA could mention a few of the initiatives taken by her, the state would be able to benefit from her experiences.

Answering a question by Varun Choudhary, Congress MLA from Mullana, Chautala said Haryana’s second technology centre would be set up at Saha in Ambala district, for which a proposal had been sent to the Central Government for the acquisition of 20 acres.