Residents pitch for fresh BPL survey

Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 25

The issue of ignoring poor families in the below poverty line (BPL) list dominated the much-publicised ‘Back to Village’ programme organised by the state government across 4,483 panchayats in J&K.

Although villagers listed a number of problems being faced by them, their main demand was conduct of a fresh survey to include genuine families in the BPL list.

“Many deserving people were left out in 2011 when the BPL list was prepared. So people have reasons to raise the issue at every platform,” a leader of the All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference, adding that giving benefits of the schemes meant for BPL families to deserving people was a big issue in the rural areas.

In the Jammu region, there are hundreds of needy families, which should be included in the existing BPL list, but they have been left out due to the callous approach of authorities at the time 

of making the BPL list.

Notable discrepancies were exposed when the names of two former MLAs, who are millionaires, figured in the BPL lists of their respective areas two years ago.

Although the names of both former lawmakers were removed from the BPL lists after a furore, there are a number of influential people who have managed to get their names included in the list.

Successive governments, from time to time, have admitted that there are discrepancies in the BPL list, but nothing concrete has been done so far to rectify the flaws.

After the state government got repeated representations that a large number of influential persons had managed to get their names included in the BPL list, a re-verification process was started to exclude them, but to no avail.

An order was issued on September 6, 2011, to conduct a socio-economic caste census in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry for Rural Development. Even after the completion of the process, a large number of influential people have managed to get their names included in the BPL category while many deserving people have been left out.

The last Economic Report tabled in the Legislative Assembly in 2017 had mentioned that nearly 10.35 per cent of the population falls under the BPL category in Jammu and Kashmir, with the rural areas having more poor than the urban areas.

The proportion of population living below the poverty line in rural and urban areas has been estimated at 11.54% and 7.20%, respectively, while the population living below the poverty line is 10.35%.

‘Back to village’ programme 

Flaws not rectified

• Successive governments, from time to time, have admitted that there are discrepancies in the BPL list, but nothing concrete has been done to rectify the flaws
• Notable discrepancies were exposed when the names of two former MLAs, who are millionaires, figured in the BPL lists of their respective areas two years ago
• Although the names of both former lawmakers were removed from the BPL lists after a furore, there are a number of influential people who have managed to get their names included in the list