Patna, May 22: The state rural development department has written a letter to the chief economic advisor of the Union ministry of rural development demanding an independent commission for the below poverty line (BPL) census after chief minister Nitish Kumar made the same request.

The letter has been sent in response to the Centre’s missive in April seeking views of states on the draft questionnaire developed for canvassing during the BPL census, 2011. The census would be conducted between June and December this year.

The state rural development department has been made the nodal department for conducting the census in the state. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 34 crore to carry out the exercise in the state. Of it, Rs 14 crore has been provided to the state.

While making a request for setting up an independent statutory BPL commission on the lines of Election Commission, the state rural development has given reasons for making such a demand.

“This panel can be asked to design, enumerate and supervise the entire BPL survey exercise. It can ensure the survey is carried out scientifically. An independent panel would be free of day-to-day administrative pressure and have greater credibility in the eyes of public. The state government officials involved in the BPL survey can be placed under the control and supervision of the commission,” reads the letter.

Under the existing system, block offices in Bihar conduct the BPL census work through questionnaires. The letter suggested the Centre to set up project management units at state, district and block levels during the course of the survey. “These units can organise the survey and implement a cascading monitoring system to check the integrity of the survey process at every stage. Defaulters identified by a unit should be dealt with strictly in a defined manner. Such a system would help reduce the errors and intentional fudging by local level vested interests,” it reads.

On the question of piloting the BPL survey, the letter says the purpose of the BPL census is to convert the national poverty number to an all India list of poor people. Any deviation from the Planning Commission poverty number discredits the BPL census and the state machinery that conducted the census. “More importantly, the central allocations for schemes like public distribution system (PDS) is linked to the Planning Commission number. As a result, states run into problems when they have to work with BPL names that exceed the Planning Commission’s number,” it reads.

This point assumes significance in the context of Bihar as the Centre holds that there are only 65 lakh BPL families in the state and makes allocation for PDS in accordance with this data. But the subsequent revisions of the BPL list in the state revealed that there are 1.26 crore rural BPL families in the state. The last BPL census was conducted in 2002.

“A BPL list having the approval of the Centre would be of great help because the state government faces problems in meeting the demands of the BPL families not figuring in the list approved by the Centre because no central assistance is sent for them,” the state rural development minister, Nitish Mishra, said. , told The Telegraph.

He said the state’s letter to the Centre also talks about piloting the BPL survey questionnaire so that it could have all the points when the final round of survey work is done.