New Delhi: Nearly 63% of Haryana’s population is below the poverty line (BPL), data from the Parivar Pahchan Patras (PPPs) has revealed. While the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janata Party government has endorsed the data, experts are pointing to fraudulent BPL card holders who want to avail themselves of state benefits.
The state, with a total population of 2.86 crores, has 1,80,93,475 individuals in the BPL category on 44,90,017 BPL cards (families) according to the Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department.
Officials said that BPL status is granted after the income declared by people on PPPs or family IDs is verified. However, according to the Tribune, official sources, ration depot holders and sociologists have questioned the authenticity of this self reported information submitted to obtain BPL cards.
Depot holders said that they know of well off families from the upper-middle class category who have managed to get hold of BPL cards, the paper reported. “To avail benefits of government schemes like free foodgrain and cheaper ration, they have managed to get BPL cards,” a depot holder told the Tribune.
“The situation is similar in urban pockets. Despite having good family income, people have found a way out to get into the BPL category. Some families have made separate cards so that the threshold limit of the BPL category is not breached and they get the benefits,” another depot holder said.
According to the report, Faridabad tops the list with the highest number of BPL families, followed by Mewat, Hisar and Karnal. However, Hisar and Karnal are among the most prosperous districts of the state, the report said.
Sociologist Jitendra Prasad said that the agencies responsible for compiling this data have failed to verify it. “Even the segmental division of this data in the SC and BC communities won’t show it anywhere close to reality,” he said, adding that it is possible the data has not been verified for political reasons.
Changes to BPL eligibility criteria
Khattar had lifted the cut-off on economic criteria to be eligible for a BPL card from an annual income of Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh in 2021. He had also announced that families with an electricity bill over Rs 12,000 would be eligible to avail BPL benefits in October last year.
The ‘Parivar Pehchan Patra’ had an income condition that anyone with a power bill of more than Rs 12,000 would be considered in the same slab as those having an annual income of Rs 1.80 lakh or above. “Now this slab has been abolished, thus eliminating the electricity bill condition,” the Economic Times quoted Khattar as saying.
