New Delhi, April 19: Rahul Gandhi has asked the UPA government to review the below-poverty line (BPL) list.

The Congress MP made the demand last week while attending a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the rural development ministry, which is finalising ways to revise estimates on the number of the poor. Rahul’s stress apparently was on making the BPL list more “inclusive”.

“Rahul Gandhi was concerned about the anomalies in the 2002 BPL list and sought clarifications from the minister. He insisted that the existing list has excluded a number of eligible people and wanted corrective measures,’’ said a ministry official who attended the April 13 discussions in Parliament House Annexe. The meeting was called to review the progress of the Indira Awaas Yojana, a housing scheme for the poor.

According to sources, minister C.P. Joshi told Rahul that his department was in the process of fine-tuning a new BPL criteria. “The minister assured him that the new criteria would be more inclusive,’’ said the official.

The sources said the House panel agreed with the Amethi MP’s point, with many members expressing the view that an inaccurate BPL list would undermine the objective of the social welfare schemes launched by the Centre.

The government has been so far dragging its feet on fixing the new BPL criteria, fearing any official revision would throw up more “real poor’’ and require an increase in the expenditure on schemes for their welfare.

All commissions set up in the past to assess poverty had put the number of the poor much higher than the official estimates.