‘AUTOMATIC INCLUSION’ OF MUSLIMS IN BPL PROPOSED

‘AUTOMATIC INCLUSION’ OF MUSLIMS IN BPL PROPOSED

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July 21, 2022

The Union Rural Development Ministry has proposed “automatic inclusion” of Muslims in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list of families along with Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Aware of the political sensitivities involved, the Ministry plans to replace the word “Muslim” with “Minority” to pre-empt opposition, especially from BJP-ruled states. Inaugurating a conference of Social Editors, Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi said to simplify the process and ensure that vulnerable sections are not left out from the BPL list, his department favoured automatic “inclusion” and “exclusion”. It has been proposed, he said, that SCs, STs and minorities be automatically included in the BPL list and then well-off families excluded on basis of Income Tax returns, land records, etc. And certain categories will be “automatically” excluded from the BPL list: families with double of a district’s average irrigated land, those with a four or three-wheel motor vehicle or mechanised farm equipment, a government or private sector employee earning a salary above Rs 10,000 a month. Joshi justified automatic inclusion citing that “SCs, STs and Minorities together form less than 37% of the population” — less than the BPL population pegged by the S C Saxena and Suresh Tendulkar committee reports released recently.