Naveen politicising the BPL list-Congress

Bhubaneswar, Feb 5 (UNI) Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader J B Patnaik today asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik not to play politics over the BPL list of the state.

Reacting to the state government's statement accusing the Congress led UPA government at the centre for pressurising Orissa to downsize the BPL list, Mr Patnaik said the state government had not correctly enumerated the BPL families in 2002 economic sample survey, which had identified 28.73 lakh BPL families.

Had the government identified the BPL families correctly the number of BPL families in the state would have been much more, Mr Patnaik said.

He said the Central Government and the Planning Commission only chalked out the modalities for preparing the BPL list but the actual survey work was done by the state government.

The Congress leader said if the BPL list was faulty why did not the government lodge any protest with the Centre adding that if the government accepted the report of the 61st survey,the number of BPL families in the state would be 34 lakh.

As per the Adjusted Share formula adopted by the Planning Commission during the NDA rule seven to eight lakh families could have been added to the list, Mr Patnaik remarked.

The Leader of Opposition said the Panchayatraj Minister had stated in the house that the identification of BPL families for 2007 had been over and the BPL list would be implemented on the basis of the list in the eleventh five year plan.

Since the fifth five year plan had already been started, the government should publish the final list, the former Chief Minister demanded.

Mr Patnaik said it was wrong on the part of the state government to blame the Centre for downsizing the BPL families without admitting its own mistake.

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