Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Wednesday announced to enhance family income limit for a household for qualifying as a beneficiary under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 15,000 per month so as to ensure that maximum eligible families get the benefit of various government schemes admissible to them.
Manohar Lal was addressing the people at the State Level BPL Ration Card Distribution function organized at Panchkhula near here. Earlier, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of nine development projects worth Rs 93.29 crore for district Panchkula.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister also distributed ration card to 37 BPL beneficiaries of Panchkula and Kalka assembly constituency. In all, ration cards to 56,315 beneficiaries were distributed at the functions organized simultaneously in all 22 districts and 68 Vidhan Sabhas of the state.
Manohar Lal said that today is indeed a historical day as BPL cards to 56,315 beneficiaries living below poverty line have been prepared and distributed after a huge gap of 11 years. It was in the year 2008 when this exercise was carried out in the state, he said.
The Chief Minister said that these cards would make them entitled for various government facilities like wheat, rice, sugar and mustard oil on subsidized rates. Now, it has been decided that ration card would be prepared of all those families in the state as have monthly income of Rs 15,000 (Rs 1.80 lakh annually) so as to include maximum eligible families under the ambit of the scheme, he added.
While congratulating the beneficiaries, he said that ration card of all needy persons should be prepared but those BPL and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) card holders who have crossed the parameters set for these cards during the period from 2008 to 2019 should voluntarily opt out of availing this facility so that this subsidy could be utilized for the welfare of poor people.
Manohar Lal said that the process of preparing new pink and yellow card for the BPL families in the state has been started from August 21 onwards and the eligible beneficiaries could get the same prepared at any E-disha Kendra or Antyodya Kendra by giving their family details.
Apart from this, directions have also been given for the online registration of 1.40 lakh applications which are lying pending in the state at the level of Deputy Commissioners and Additional Deputy Commissioners. This registration process would remain continued, he added.
He also said that cards of 26 lakh families in the state have been prepared. There were 10.60 lakh AAY card holders in Haryana and after distributing 56,315 more such cards today, this number has increased to 11, 16,315, he added.
The Chief Minister further said that benefits to the eligible BPL beneficiaries are provided by both the State as well as Centre Government. 2 liter of mustard oil per family is provided at the rate of Rs 20 per liter whereas as its market rate is Rs 116 per liter. The balance amount of Rs 96 per liter is provided by the State Government as subsidy, he said.
The State Government has also started various schemes for the benefit of poor people in Haryana so that the eligible beneficiaries get the benefit of these schemes. To ensure this the State Government has started a campaign for preparing family IDs in the state, he added.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary, Development and Panchayats Sudhir Rajpal said that following the directions of Chief Minister, a massive exercise was carried out in the state for preparing cards for those eligible BPL families who were deprived earlier.
He said that proper transparency process has been adopted and cards have been prepared after conducting due physical verification.
