Orissa and Centre lock horns over BPL numbers

Orissa is the poorest state in the country. But, nobody knows what is the total number of BPL families living in the state? The state government claims that it is 41.56 lakh and the Centre is putting it at 34.63 lakh.

With the Centre now pegging the number of BPL families at 34.63 lakh, Orissa is going to grapple with the families excluded from the Centre?s beneficiary list.

The ministry for rural development has clarified that the Central assistance will be targeted at the 34.63 families pending finalisation of the BPL family number by the Planning Commission. In effect, the families excluded by the Centre will lose BPL status and the welfare benefits attached to it as Central assistance will reduce correspondingly. The Central assistance for the revised BPL list came into effect from April 1, 2008.

The minister for rural development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, in a letter to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik, has said that the allocation of houses under Indira Awas Yojana to the BPL beneficiaries should be as per the 2002 BPL survey list. He has clarified that the ministry will not entertain any allocation of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) houses as per the old list (1997 survey list).

The chief minister, in a recent letter to Singh, had expressed concern over the ministry?s decision to delete families from the BPL list.

Patnaik had stated that the number of BPL families was pegged at 41.56 lakh with addition of 10% of the transient rural poor to the number of BPL families arrived at on the basis of 2002 census, and argued that the number of BPL household to be accepted by the Centre. As per 1997 BPL census, the state has 44.93 lakh families which were covered under various welfare schemes.

Now, with the number of BPL families reduced the allocations of subsidised food grains and IAY to the state would be reduced. The state would have to take care of the BPL families excluded from the list. Meanwhile, the state government has launched a housing scheme ?Mo Kudia? scheme to cover the 10 lakh BPL families excluded by the Centre.