Shimla: Himachal Pradesh government yesterday said it will ensure that the list of people in Below Poverty Line (BPL) have the names of poorest of the poor and there will not be pick and choose on political considerations at the whims and fancies of influential persons.
“It has been noticed that many people from well-off families were enjoying the facilities meant for poor people by getting their names incorporated in BPL lists and the government would check the lists to delete the names of ineligible people,” HP Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said yesterday.
He said, the BPL list should be as per the actual status of the person concerned and it should be ensured in the Gram Sabha meetings that undue advantage was not given to the cronies of the political functionaries at grass root level.
The Block development Officers (BDO) and other revenue officers should look into such malpractices and bring such cases to the notice of the Government, he said.
Chief Minister said there were many schemes meant for rural poor and it had also been brought to his notice that in few cases the funds were distributed as per the will of elected representatives and did not reach the needy.
He said that the onus lies upon the revenue officials to ensure justice to the people and if any such cases come to the notice the same may be reported adding that initiative should come from the block level, from the BDOs, Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars.
Stressing that sanitation awareness has become more relevant in the present era chief minister said “we should not only concentrate on our town and cities but also take the campaign to farthest places in rural areas also.”
The remote areas and the farthest corner of the State and every household, institution and school in rural areas must have toilet.
The concept of cleanliness has not emerged all of a sudden but was propagated by Mahatama Gandhi and urged the BDOs to lay special emphasis on the sanitation programmes he said, adding that “I want to see that Himachal Pradesh becomes the first State in India to achieve the targets under sanitation programme.”
The Chief Minister said that Community Development model has been envisaged as a point of convergence of different programmes for holistic development of rural areas and this concept has revolutionised the development of rural India.
By changing the face of rural areas, we can ensure a better future for the state and the nation as a whole, chief minister said, and added Panchayati Raj Institutions at various levels were being involved in the planning and execution of poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes to ensure that the benefits under these programmes reach the target groups.
