Gujarat High Court issues notice to Centre over BPL limit

The Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the Centre today, directing it to explain within a month about the criteria by which a person could be issued below poverty line (BPL) ration cards.
Acting on a PIL filed by a city-based NGO, a division bench, comprising acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria, issued a notice to the central government, since the NGO claimed the monthly earning limit set by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to issue BPL ration cards in the city is based on a central government directive.
In its PIL, the NGO called Ambedkar Caravan said that as per AMC rules, any city dweller earning less than Rs 501.14 per month, falls in BPL category and is entitled to get a BPL ration card.

The litigant said AMC prepared a list of BPL people between 2008 and 2011 based on this criteria which, according to them, is not a practical one.
"Our main contention is that the BPL list prepared by AMC is full of irregularities and needs to be scrapped so that a new list is prepared. We also drew attention of the court to the fact that the BPL limit of Rs 501.14 is not practicable, because even a small vendors earn Rs 50 per day, which would take his monthly income to Rs 1,500, which is much higher than Rs 501.14," said NGO member and advocate Ratna Vora.

When AMC was approached for a clarification about the BPL limit criteria of Rs 501.14 for the city, the applicant was told that the limit is "prescribed by the Centre" and BPL ration cards are distributed according to the list prepared in accordance with that criteria", the PIL said.
"In their reply to us, AMC claimed that the criteria to prepare the BPL list for the city was prescribed by the Centre. It is applicable in all major cities of the state. Thus, we made the central government a party and approached the Gujarat High Court," Vora said.