If former CM B S Yeddyurappa had his way, he would have set a new record in identifying the families below poverty line (BPL) in the State.

Sample this: Over 95 per cent of families in Chamarajnagar district would have been BPL, 93 per cent families in Hassan, 86 per cent in Mandya, 82 per cent in Chitradurga and over 80 per cent in Mysore - if the Yeddyurappa cabinet’s decision to issue BPL cards to an additional 12.5 lakh families were implemented.

Additional cards
A day after he took oath as chief minister, Yeddyurappa in the Cabinet meeting decided to issue an additional 12.5 lakh BPL cards within a month’s time. But he couldn’t implement it, as his government collapsed soon after.
Stunned by the abnormally high percentage of the BPL ‘beneficiaries’ in these districts, Governor Rameshwar Thakur has recently decided to put the Cabinet decision on hold.

“The Governor has directed the Food and Civil Supplies department not to hurry through distributing the BPL cards as decided in the Cabinet and asked to weed out ineligible families,” official sources told Deccan Herald.
As per statistics from the Food and Civil Supplies department, the State already has a whopping 72 lakh BPL families, which is double the number of what the Union Government has identified (39 lakh families), officials said.
Over and above this, 12.5 lakh families had claimed that they were also BPL and the department had decided to scrutinise the new claims before issuing them with cards.

However, Yeddyurappa cleared it in one go and took a decision to issue cards to all of them.

Food and Civil Supplies Department Commissioner P N Srinivasachary said the Government has directed the issue of BPL cards after a thorough scrutiny. “We have already identified over two lakh ineligible families and the process is still on to bring the number down,” he stated.

Why was Yeddyurappa in a hurry? “Issuing BPL cards was a popular decision. He wanted to cash in on it politically. Especially because the additional BPL beneficiaries were concentrated in old Mysore region, where the BJP’s hold is weak, he was very eager to issuing the cards,” sources said.

Permanent cards
The Department has started taking photographs of the BPL and above poverty line (APL) beneficiaries, to issue permanent, computerised ration cards.

This work has so far been completed in 22 taluks, and is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.

Permanent ration cards will be issued after taking photographs of all beneficiaries, but no date has been specified.