Mayawati writes to PM to increase BPL quota for Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow, June 12 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has written a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh requesting him to increase Below Poverty Line quota for her State.

Drawing the PM's attention towards her previous letter sent to him last October on increasing the BPL quota for the State, Mayawati said that the issue of increasing the BPL quota had been pending since long with the Central Government.

Mayawati, in her latest letter, has sought relief for a large number of poor families.

She has stated that surveys in Uttar Pradesh indicated that there was a substantial variation between ground realities and numbers assigned to the State by the Central Government.

The number of poor people was significantly higher in reality, and there was an urgent need to include them in BPL list, Maywati stressed in her letter.

Mayawati has said that the 2002 survey had provided for an additional BPL quota of 10 per cent as a Transient Poor category. However, the State could not get the benefit of this additional quota of 10.6 lakh families, which could have partly mitigated the needs of the State's poor.

Mayawati has requested the Prime Minister to direct the new expert committee set up by the Union Government to develop criteria and a process of identifying poverty, to look into this critical issue, which is likely to impact millions of urban migrants. (ANI)