Fictitious BPL cards detected

LUCKNOW: Thousands of fictitious below poverty line (BPL) ration cards have been detected in the state following a special drive launched on the directives of chief minister Mayawati to carry out intensive verification of BPL ration cards.
A senior official in the food and civil supplies department told TOI that around 70,000 new BPL families were identified during the drive launched jointly by the rural development department and the food department in December 2007."These 70,000 new cards were issued after cancelling the same number of cards issued in the names of those who were not actually entitled for it," said the official, adding that in a majority of cases it was found that specified norms were blatantly flouted while issuing of these cards.
He said that Lucknow division had topped the list where over 10,000 new BPL cards were issued. Lucknow division was followed by Allahabad, Jhansi, Azamgarh, Faizabad and Agra divisions where 9962, 6044, 4965, 4616 and 4150 new cards were distributed respectively to families entitled for the same. He said that soon action would be initiated against those who were responsible for issuing such fictitious cards.
The official said that a large number of complaints were received by the chief minister's office about undeserving families provided with BPL cards under which highly subsidised food grain is made available through the public distribution system. Besides, there was disparity in the number of BPL families identified by the rural development department and the food department.
To get the fictitious BPL cards cancelled and to also remove disparity to bring about uniformity in BPL families, identified by both the rural development department as well as the food department, a meeting was convened by the chief secretary in the last week of November 2007 where after detailed discussion, a broad outline was drawn to carry out a fresh drive to identify actual beneficiaries.
As per the guidelines, it was decided in principle that those having two hectare land will not be considered for this facility as the number of BPL families identified by the Union government for the state was 1.06 crore.
Besides that points were fixed for various instruments of facilities enjoyed by a family including a pucca house, gas connection, annual family income and electricity connection. On the basis of calculation done by the committee constituted for this purpose, a final picture had emerged on the actual BPL families in the state, said the official. He said that as per the decision taken in the meeting presided over by the chief secretary, all the district magistrates were made the nodal officers with the CDO, a representative of the DM and the district supplies officer being members of the district level committee. Similarly for the rural areas, the committee was headed by sub-divisional magistrate with tehsildar, block development officer and the supply inspector of the area being its member, said the official.