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Anomalies in the preparation of Below Poverty Line (BPL) haunt the Nitish Kumar government not only in the Assembly but also at the party forum. The JD (U) MLAs, which had so far been backing the government on the issue, raised it at the state-level working committee meeting of the Youth JD (U) in Patna on Friday.

The constant attack on the discrepancies in the BPL list forced Kumar and leader of the JD (U) Parliamentary Party, Prabhunath Singh, to clarify the government’s stand. "The hue and cry raised by the opposition is a sponsored one. Those who are championing the cause of poor never bothered earlier to look whose name was there," countered Kumar. "Why people blame the state government?

After all, the list was prepared in 2002 when Rabri Devi was the Chief Minister. The foodgrains for BPL people are provided by the Centre, whereas the state government acts as a manager," said Pabhunath Singh, MP in defence of the NDA government.

The Chief Minister accepted that although his government had got the BPL list corrected, some discrepancies still existed. "We told them that we will get that examined once again," said Kumar, who went hammer and tongs against the Opposition for trying to project the whole issue in a different manner. "Where were they when the poor used to take loans for purchasing food," he asked. He reiterated his resolve to streamline the PDS and ensure that poor got their quota of foodgrains and kerosene.

On the demand of Prabhunath Singh for distribution of APL card, the Chief Minister announced that it would be distributed from September. Kumar once again requested the Centre to increase the kerosene oil quota for the state and judge poverty on a 16-points indice. "I have been repeatedly raising the issues with the Centre, and if they do not take note of the state’s problem, we would think of an agitation," he said. He also announced to organise an international seminar on poverty in the state capital very soon.

Kumar urged the party youths to propagate the programmes and policies of the government so that the opposition did not succeed in misleading the people. He also spelled out different programmes of the state government in different fields.

Party national president Sharad Yadav urged the youths to take up the challenges before the government collectively. "After all its your government,” he said.

Earlier, most of the MLAs, expressed their concern at the large-scale anomalies in BPL list in their respective areas and demanded immediate revision of the list. Party’s state president Rajiv Ranjan Singh urged the youth brigade to ensure that nobody’s raised his finger on the government policies.

Email author: vswaroop@hindustantimes.com