Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda today shot off a letter to Governor Syed Ahmed seeking a probe into the irregularities being committed in preparation of the fresh BPl (below poverty line) list.
Munda, in his two-page letter, has pointed out that the officials involved in the BPl survey, are not going door to door for the verification. “Instead they are preparing the list sitting in their offices using the data dished out by the 2011 census,” he added.
The former Chief Minister, who has been persuading the Centre to grant funds to feed the rising number of the poor in Jharkhand, said that a flawed list will deprive the BPl of their due and put a question mark on the success of various welfare and skill development projects.
Munda urged the Governor to ensure that the survey team visits each and every family in the remote areas to evaluate the poverty condition and prepare the list accordingly.
He said that controversy had dogged the BPl list preparation in the State though the Central Government has assured the National Development Council and also the lok Sabha in the past to collect genuine data to prepare the list of poor people.
Ironically, the Central Government considers only 23.94 lakh as below poverty line, in Jharkhand though the State Government has been urging the Centre to include additional 11.44 lakh families in the list based on the data dished out by a survey in 2002.
In fact, the State Government has been feeding the additional 11.44 families from its own resources.
Notably, the State Cabinet, in July last year, had approved `360.66 crore to enable the
left-out families continue to procure grains at one rupee every month this fiscal.
The Cabinet approval had been given to enable the families to avail 35 kg grains at one rupee per kg every month under the Mukhya Mantri Sahayata Yojana.
The State government had also created a revolving fund of `94 crore for the poor who are not enlisted in the Centrally-approved BPl list.