With an aim to extend the BPl benefits to large section of people UP’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh has written a letter to Government of India to increase the number of BPl card
holders in the state. In his letter to Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan he said that at present BPl benefit is extending to just over
one crore people living below poverty line. “This figure is based on the 2001 census when people having annual income of Rs 9,000 were
entitled for this benefit,” he said. “The BPl limit has been revised.
Now with the revised figure issued by the Government of India any family less than an annual income of Rs 25,546 in urban areas and Rs 19,883 in rural areas are identified as BPl family. With this increased limit many BPl families can avail the facilities,” Singh said in his letter that was released on Monday.
He said therefore it is of paramount importance that BPl quota of Uttar Pradesh should be revised. “This has to be done so that families
living below poverty lines could get all the facilities available under antodaya and other schemes,” he said. The Uttar Pradesh Government has been raising this demand to increase BPl quota for last many years. The previous BSP Government had carried out a drive to identify actual BPl families and had asked the then UPA Government to increase the quota accordingly.
In 2012 the Akhilesh Yadav Government too had asked for revision the BPl quota. “It is really shocking that just 1 crore people in UP gets BPl facility while Government of India claims that over 35 per cent population of UP is poor. Going by this figure over 7 crore
people in UP should be included in BPl list,” Singh told The Pioneer here on Monday.
Uttar Pradesh, one of the most backward states of India, is home to 21 crore people. The Antodaya scheme under which BPl families get
subsidized food grains and sugar is central government scheme and number of beneficiaries is decided by the Union government in
consultation with state government. “It is over a decade and a half since the BPl list was revised. The population has increased. In 2001 we were 15 crore and now we are 21 crore. It is high time that Government of India revise the BPl quota,” the minister said.