Officer, retd Armymen in Bihar BPL list, Dalit landless are out

But an investigation by The Indian Express in Patna district, including Sadisopur where nearly 500 people stormed the local Urdu primary school building on March 1 and looted coupons — shows that genuine BPL families are being left out of the scheme because of irregularities in the BPL list which decides who gets the coupons. While names of the genuinely poor have been struck off, many from the above poverty line have made it to the list. Consider these:

• Basgit Chowdhury, a resident of Kanhaulee village of Sadisopur panchayat, figures in the corrected BPL list. A retired Armyman, he lives in a pucca house and draws a pension of Rs 2,500.

Yet he has been awarded a score of just 1 point in the BPL survey — in effect, he is one of the poorest of the poor. Like Chowdhury, Madan Prasad, who too retired from the Army and lives in the village, is also in the list. Both say they never petitioned to be included in the BPL list. “I don’t know how my name has made it to the list. This shows how faulty this new list is,” Chowdhury told The Indian Express.

• In the same village, Jagannath Ram, a Dalit, has scored 21 points and fallen off the BPL list — he has been placed in the APL list. The state government has fixed 13 points as cut-off to divide BPL and APL families. Ram is landless, lives in a thatched house constructed on government land and can barely manage two meals a day. Had Ram’s family been the only one left out, it would have been considered an error. But here, the entire Dalit settlement of some 200 landless families has been struck off the BPL list.

• Manoj Kumar, a state government gazetted officer who hails from Sadisopur and is presently posted in Sasaram, figures in the BPL list. “My uncle visits this village once in Madan Prasad, who too retired from the Army and lives in the village, is also in the list. Both say they never petitioned to be included in the BPL list. “I don’t know how my name has made it to the list. This shows how faulty this new list is,” Chowdhury told The Indian Express.

• In the same village, Jagannath Ram, a Dalit, has scored 21 points and fallen off the BPL list — he has been placed in the APL list. The state government has fixed 13 points as cut-off to divide BPL and APL families. Ram is landless, lives in a thatched house constructed on government land and can barely manage two meals a day. Had Ram’s family been the only one left out, it would have been considered an error. But here, the entire Dalit settlement of some 200 landless families has been struck off the BPL list.

• Manoj Kumar, a state government gazetted officer who hails from Sadisopur and is presently posted in Sasaram, figures in the BPL list. “My uncle visits this village once in two years. I don’t know how his name has figured in the BPL list,” nephew Raj Kumar said. Behind Manoj Kumar’s pucca house lives Ramprasad Mochi. A daily wage-earner, he does not find a place in the list. “Well-to-do people have made it to the BPL list while the genuine ones have been left out. We can do little except protest,” said Mochi.

• Sadisopur’s mukhiya is Sudha Devi, one of the many who heads a panchayat under the 50 per cent reservation for women. Their husbands, who actually call the shots, are called mukhiyapatis by the locals. Shudha Devi’s husband Pappu Chowdhury conceded that many “undeserving people” figure in the BPL list. But he blamed the elected ward representatives for it. “They were asked to provide a list of poor families in their ward. We only forwarded it to the authorities who prepared the list on the basis of cut-off points,” he said. But ward member Saraswati Devi refuted the charge, showing her list to say she never included the name of government officer Manoj Kumar. “The mukhiya and officials have listed names of only those who favour them and delete those opposed,” she alleged.

• Muhammad Mustafa, panchayat samiti member, said “I had forwarded the names of all the landless poor families of Kanhaulee village. Surprisingly, not a single one has appeared on the list. It seems to be a conspiracy.”

It’s irregularities such as these that are causing unrest across Bihar, despite a massive exercise by the new government to rectify the BPL list.

Directions were issued to hold special gram sabhas in all panchayats to enable genuine BPL families, who had been left out of the list, to petition for inclusion of their names. The matter was even widely publicised.

After the gram sabhas, two surveys, first by government officials and the second by high school students/ NCC cadets, were conducted to ensure minimum error in the list.

But in Sadisopur, the gram sabha was held only for a day and surveys done only on paper. “Nobody came to us. We only heard that government officials had come but never saw them. Had they come and seen my condition, I am sure they would not have given me 21 points,” said Jagannath Ram.

Three types of complaints, admits DM

PATNA: Asked about the complaints, Patna District Magistrate B Rajendran told The Indian Express: “We have received complaints from three blocks of the district. The complaints are of three types — first, some people have been completely left out; second, poor families have been awarded more than 13 points; and third, some deserving BPL families have been denied kerosene oil coupons. I have issued instructions to verify and correct the anomalies.”

(Tomorrow: Directions ignored, corrections not carried out)