Question : CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PEOPLE BELOW POVERTY LINE

(a) whether owning a radio, a bicycle and a one-point electricity connection in the house is an accepted norm in deciding that a family is above poverty line;

(b) if so, whether the Government believe that with Rs. 254 per capita income, a family cannot own a radio, a second hand bicycle and a one-point electricity connection;

(c) whether the Government have received some representations from the people that the survey for deciding the people living below poverty line (BPL) is not done properly; and

(d) if so, whether the Government propose to conduct re-survey of BPL census?

MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI M. VENKAIAH NAIDU)

(a)&(b) The Expert Group constituted for finalisation of criteria for identifying households Below Poverty Line (BPL) in the rural areas, recommended, inter-alia, that the households owning consumer durables such as T.V., Refrigerator, Ceiling Fan, Motorcycle/Scooter, three wheeler and farm implements such as tractor, power tiller and combined thresher/harvester may not be considered to be Below the Poverty Line. Besides, households having more than two hectares of land, pucca house or annual income more than Rs. 20,000/- from salary/self employment were also not considered to be Below the Poverty Line.

(c) Some representations have been received for inclusion of some families which have been left out during the last BPL Census, in the BPL list.

(d) The Government propose to conduct the next BPL Census during 2002.