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Calcutta, April 3: The Mamata Banerjee government is planning to request the Centre to do away with the policy of fixing the number of people living below the poverty line based on a yearly sample survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
The state government wants the Centre to extend BPL benefits according to a survey conducted by the Bengal administration. The percentage of people belonging to the category is much more in the state count than the NSSO survey.
The demand will be placed during the Planning Commission’s meeting with the chief minister and the finance minister in Delhi on April 9.
Senior officials at Writers’ Buildings said the state government wanted to extend the central BPL assistance to more people.
A senior official said: “The state gets central assistance under various pension and housing schemes for BPL-category people. According to the NSSO survey, only 28 per cent of the people in Bengal belong to the BPL category. But a survey carried out in 2009 by the state government revealed that 42 per cent of Bengal’s population belonged to the BPL category.”
The NSSO survey was carried out on behalf of the Planning Commission last year. The cap is fixed on the basis of the survey.
“We will raise our voice against this system. Our demand is clear. The Centre has to take responsibility for all the people living below the poverty line,” said panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, who will also attend the meeting in Delhi.
Officials said the Centre had turned down a similar plea by the erstwhile Left Front government in 2010.
The Trinamul government is hopeful that the Centre would consider the demand this time because the state administration’s BPL survey in 2012 was conducted with the assistance of the Union rural development ministry.
State panchayat department officials said the “rural household survey”, which determines the BPL percentage, included several parameters such as educational qualification, income, ownership of house, cycle and access to electricity. Each parameter carries scores, totalling 60, and a tally below 30 indicates a family is below the poverty line.
Although the result of the 2012 state survey, the first since 2009, is yet to be made public, senior officials said it appeared that more than 40 per cent of the people belonged to the BPL category.
“We cannot fix the exact number of people living below the poverty line until we receive objections and claims on the draft list from the common people. After that, we will send the list to the Centre for its approval,” panchayat minister Mukherjee said.
He added that his department would soon come out with the draft list for receiving objections and claims.
“The Bengal government is trying to ensure that all the people under the BPL category according to the state survey get the benefits of welfare schemes. It would not be possible for the state to provide the facilities on its own if the Centre remains firm on its stand of fixing a cap on the number of poor in a state based on its sample survey,” an official said.
A minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet said the state would “fight for its demand till the end” as it would yield “rich dividends” in the panchayat and Lok Sabha polls.