Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has come under pressure from a section of Congress legislators to restore the below-poverty line (BPL) cards of poor people that have been eliminated in a recent government drive. These lawmakers raised the subject at the Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting Wednesday night as some of their own voters have been affected.
The food & civil supplies department has been on an overdrive to weed out BPL cards of ineligible families, but many eligible cardholders too have ended up losing their cards. Sections of Congress MLAs worry that the affected poor people might show their anger at the upcoming elections to five city corporations in Bengaluru and to panchayat bodies.
Siddaramaiah chaired the meeting and listened to the complaints. The CM, in fact, has always been firm that people in permanent government jobs and paying income taxes don’t deserve BPL cards.
About a year ago, when he first heard this, the CM held a review meeting where he came across some new facts. Several low-income families, dependent on free food grains every month, found their cards axed by the staff at the department. The review followed enormous pressure brought up by the Opposition parties with campaigns targeting the government for its attempts to overhaul the BPL card beneficiary list in a bid to weed out the non-poor people.
The CM came to know that in most cases, low-income families had filed income tax returns on advice of banks when they approached them for retail and auto loans.
An official at a public sector bank said they ask for proof of income for loans that are not covered under the government of India schemes. These could be personal, vehicle or home loans, and in some cases, education loans too. The CM is said to have come across cases where people who filed IT returns for the sake of availing of loans had been struck off the BPL list. They were not income taxpayers.
An official said the revenue authorities are required to visit homes and certify the poverty status in cases where people have contested cancellation of their cards. But revenue officials are not showing much interest as it relates to the food department, he added, while declining to be identified.
The food & civil supplies department has been on an overdrive to weed out BPL cards of ineligible families, but many eligible cardholders too have ended up losing their cards. Sections of Congress MLAs worry that the affected poor people might show their anger at the upcoming elections to five city corporations in Bengaluru and to panchayat bodies.
Siddaramaiah chaired the meeting and listened to the complaints. The CM, in fact, has always been firm that people in permanent government jobs and paying income taxes don’t deserve BPL cards.
About a year ago, when he first heard this, the CM held a review meeting where he came across some new facts. Several low-income families, dependent on free food grains every month, found their cards axed by the staff at the department. The review followed enormous pressure brought up by the Opposition parties with campaigns targeting the government for its attempts to overhaul the BPL card beneficiary list in a bid to weed out the non-poor people.
The CM came to know that in most cases, low-income families had filed income tax returns on advice of banks when they approached them for retail and auto loans.
An official at a public sector bank said they ask for proof of income for loans that are not covered under the government of India schemes. These could be personal, vehicle or home loans, and in some cases, education loans too. The CM is said to have come across cases where people who filed IT returns for the sake of availing of loans had been struck off the BPL list. They were not income taxpayers.
An official said the revenue authorities are required to visit homes and certify the poverty status in cases where people have contested cancellation of their cards. But revenue officials are not showing much interest as it relates to the food department, he added, while declining to be identified.
