Nitish moots BPL panel for identification of poor families

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today mooted an independent BPL Commission on the lines of Election Commission to help identify poor families.
Kumar proposed this after inaugurating a regional consultant meeting of NITI Aayog here which was attended by representatives from Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, besides Bihar.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya was also present at the meet.
Kumar emphasised on the need for positive policy initiatives to uplift backward states and bring them on par with the national standards, an official statement said here.
Such a meeting is very important for NITI Aayog as backward states have a huge population and maximum number of poor, Panagariya said and hailed Bihar's "impressive rate of growth" in the last 10 years.

During the meeting, Bihar Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh highlighted the steps taken by the state government to eradicate poverty.
The participants stressed on formulation of a comprehensive methodology for identifying poor and also suggested need for improvement in poverty alleviation programmes.