The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday decided to conduct a fresh survey to prepare a new list of families living below poverty line. The fresh survey would be undertaken jointly by the departments of rural development, food and civil supplies and revenue.
The village-wise, block-wise and district-wise number of BPL families will be fixed according to the guidelines and directives issued by the rural development ministry. The committee will be headed by concerned district magistrates and will be completed within three months.
Announcing this at a press conference on Sunday chief minister Mayawati said this was being done ostensibly after having received a number of complaints alleging discrepancies. “The exercise aims at ensuring that benefits of the scheme are availed of only by eligible families.” The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet held on Sunday. Mayawati said several discrepancies had been reported in the existing list as the rural development and food and civil supplies departments had identified BPL families separately.
“The government has been receiving a large number of complaints that a large number of eligible families were left out while ineligible families are getting the benefits,” she said.
The new list will be displayed in public places and will also be put forth at the open meeting of the gram sabha so that transparency could be maintained in the identification of such families, she added.
