Centre to approve new criteria for BPL list

The Centre will approve the much-awaited new criteria for identifying the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population before the 2009-10 General Budget.

The draft of the new set of rules has been formulated and Union rural development minister C P Joshi is likely to place it before the Cabinet in its next meeting. The new set of rules will be the overriding criterion for all central government welfare schemes. The rural development ministry will try to implement the new guidelines by June.

The Centre is likely to accept most of the recommendations of an expert committee headed by N C Saxena but give additional leverage to minorities. According to sources, the UPA Government is likely to give additional weightage to all minorities in the BPL census, while the Saxena committee had recommended more weightage only for the Muslims.

Shifting away from the old pattern of BPL census, the government will resort to a three-prong identification of rural poor households. There will be two lists of automatic exclusion and inclusion. The remaining rural households will be surveyed and judged on the basis of scores to ascertain their eligibility for the BPL category.

While the previous methodology had a maximum score of 52 (4x13), the new method will have the maximum score of just 10 marks. Caste and religion will also play a determining role for selecting BPL category. SC/STs, Most Backward Castes, Minorities and OBCs will get additional one point. If a household has members with TB, leprosy, disability, mental illness or AIDS, it will also be awarded points.

The Centre decided to change the BPL census methodology after various states pointed out major anomalies in the one adopted during the 2002 BPL census. While the estimation of poverty is done by the Planning Commission, the census to identify BPL household is undertaken by the Rural Development Ministry. Based on the census figures, the Plan Panel decides the quota of the BPL in different states.