Kerala to lodge protest on Centre's BPL criteria

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 26 (UNI) The Kerala Government today decided to lodge a strong protest with the Centre regarding the criteria for identifying Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

Briefing newspersons after a meeting of the state Cabinet, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said the total number of families in the BPL category in the state had come down to one million from the earlier 2.5 million due to the revised guidelines.

He said the Cabinet proposed a new set of guidelines that would pave the way for giving the benefit to more people in the economically weaker sections.

Referring to the Munnar demolition drive, the Chief Minister said Idukki District Collector Raju Narayanaswami had been shifted to Pathanamthitta and Mr Ashok Kumar Singh would take over as the new Idukki Collector.

He denied the report that Mr Narayanaswami was shifted from Idukki following a strong demand from the Kerala Congress(J), a partner of the ruling coalition.

UNI