Manmohan Singh and (above) Nitish Kumar

Patna, July 12: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today demanded setting up of an independent commission for the below poverty line (BPL) families on the lines of Election Commission of India.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Nitish sought a rollback of the decision of the Union ministry of rural development and ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation to use the BPL numbers as estimated by the Tendulkar Committee report as a pre-determined ceiling while conducting the nationwide socio-economic census in 2011.

“We are of the view that the number of people below the poverty line should be decided using the findings of the socio-economic census and not in a pre-determined manner as is currently done,” the letter said.

Nitish said his government was of the view that there should be independent BPL commission on the lines of the election commission, equipped with qualified experts and officials free from the pulls and pressure of the day-to-day administration.

“Conducting a large survey of the people below the poverty line requires specialised knowledge and experience that is not currently available either with the ministry of rural development or the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation,” the letter stated.

As of now, the survey of the BPL families is carried out by the two ministries. They also decided on the allocation of funds.

The Bihar government and the Centre have been on the loggerheads over the number of BPL families in the state for the past five years. While the state claims to have over 1.25 lakh BPL families, the Centre has found only about 73,000 families under the BPL category in the state.

Besides writing the letter to the Prime Minister, he also presided over a cabinet meeting and attended a public function with Vice-President Hamid Ansari today. He seems to have recovered from the viral fever he was battling for over 10 days.