12 lakh families added to BPL category in Haryana: Khattar

The state government has increased the annual income limit of BPL families from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh

Twelve lakh families have been added to the 'below poverty line' (BPL) category after the Haryana government increased the annual income criteria for it, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Monday.

Khattar also said that special camps would be organized at the district, block, and village levels to update the details of the families having the 'Parivar Pehchan Patra' (family ID card). He said that 'Parivar Pehchan Patra' (PPP) is the flagship scheme of the state government to ensure the reach of welfare schemes at the grassroots levels.

The chief minister said that while taking care of the poor families, the state government had increased the annual income limit of BPL families from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh.

As a result, the number of BPL families has increased to about 29 lakh now, he told reporters here. Khattar said that according to the new income criteria, the names of 12 lakh new families have been added to the BPL list. He also said the data of those who have been excluded from the BPL list includes 1.32 lakh families who file income tax returns, 51,489 government and contractual employees, 2,119 government pensioners and 3,44,821 families with income above Rs 1.80 lakh.

He further shared that there are 2,27,000 families whose names have been excluded from the BPL list whose annual electricity bill is more than Rs 9,000.

"If any complaint is received from such families, then a fresh survey of their income verification would be done," he said, adding a fresh survey will also be done for around 2 lakh industrial workers, and 7,416 farmers who sold crops worth Rs 4 lakh. He announced the decentralization of the powers of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and giving more autonomy to them to speed up the development works being done in rural areas.

From now onwards, the sarpanches, and chairpersons of panchayat samitis and zilla parishads can accord administrative approval for the development works up to Rs 2 lakh at their level only, the CM said, adding no tenders will be floated for all such works. Khattar said that the Common Eligibility Test (CET) has been conducted for the recruitment of "Group C" posts, the result of which is going to be declared soon. The recruitment of around 40,000 Group C posts will be advertised once the results are declared, he said.

Besides this, the CET exam will also be conducted soon for the recruitment of Group-D posts, and about 17,000 to 20,000 vacancies will be filled, he said.

When asked that opposition Congress claims Haryana has the highest unemployment rate of over 35 per cent, he described these figures as baseless and beyond facts. He also said the Opposition quotes the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy figures, and claimed that these figures are based on a very small survey sample.

Earlier, the same agency had shown Haryana's unemployment rate at 2 per cent, he claimed. Khattar said that in the last eight years, 50,000 MSME units have been set up in the state. Besides, 33,06,635 people have got employment through the private sector and self-employment opportunities, he said.