At least 20% BPL families should be in APL category, says Karnataka Minister

Belagavi: The Karnataka Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K H Muniyappa on Monday said in legislative council that at least 20 per cent of the families with Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards should be in the Above Poverty Line (APL) category.

He blamed the previous governments for the high number of Below Poverty Line ration cards in the state and appealed to all the political parties to rise above their party line and rectify this mistake.

“I accept that there are many APL families in the BPL category. They are at least 20 per cent. I tried to remove them, which led to the confusion,” he added replying to a question raised by the JD(S) MLC K A Thippeswamy in the Legislative council. Thippeswamy had asked the government about the recent confusion over the deletion of many BPL families from the list.

The MLC, however, pointed out that there are 1.43 crore families with BPL ration cards in the state, which means that almost 80 per cent of people have this ration card.

“Why has this happened? Have you investigated it?” Thippeswamy asked. In reply, Muniyappa said, “Successive governments are responsible for the increase in the BPL ration cards. I tried to bring many in the BPL to the APL. This effort created confusion.” He said he would scrutinise the list.

“Without causing trouble to a single BPL family, I will get a detailed inquiry conducted to bring the BPL families into the APL category,” the Minister told the House. He clarified that the government will not cancel the APL card holders.

According to him, there are 25 lakh APL card holders, of which only one lakh avail food grains at a subsidised rates.

Explaining the reason behind his apprehension that there are less BPL families, Muniyappa said Karnataka is the second economically strong state after Maharashtra.

Here the BPL families should be less in number but none of the southern states have above 50 per cent BPL families. “However, Karnataka has 65 per cent to 70 per cent BPL families which is not right and you all are aware of it. We need to resolve it rising above the party level. Then only it can be rectified,” the Minister said.