Himachal Government relaxes BPL selection criteria

The Department of Rural Development, Himachal Pradesh, issued a notification on Tuesday amending the process of the selection of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the fifth phase of the upcoming survey. The department relaxed the eligibility criteria and the condition of working (employment) days under MGNREGA for the aspirants to get their names included in the BPL lists to be revised soon.

As per the notification, the families, whose adult members have got at least 50 days of employment days under the MGNREGA in the last financial year, can now also apply for their inclusion in the BPL category in gram panchayats. Earlier, the department had on March 19, 2025, issued a notification and fixed 100 employment days, which it reduced to 80 days on February 4 this year in its second notification. Up to the fourth phase of the selection process that concluded on February 25, the eligibility condition was 80 working days a year.

The department through a notification also notified the fifth phase of the selection process of BPL families and asked the eligible families to submit their new applications to the panchayat secretaries till March 12. After a thorough review of their applications, the block-level committee comprising the SDM, Block Development Officer and the panchayat inspector will prepare panchayat-wise lists. After the completion of the selection process, the official list of the ‘Phase-5’ survey of BPL families will be published on March 18 to ensure that the eligible families get the benefits of government schemes.

This initiative and the relaxed eligibility criteria have ignited a ray of hope for those who had been deprived of an opportunity to get their names included in the provisional list prepared after the phase four of the survey for BPL families. The Tribune had recently highlighted the plight of the deserving and underprivileged families of Kangra district who had been removed from the BPL lists until the fourth phase survey in which nearly 80 per cent of the beneficiaries in Kangra district were reportedly removed due to the stringent eligibility criteria laid down by the state government. The large-scale deletions from the BPL lists triggered wide-spread resentment among deserving families in the district.