Shillong, Sept 6: The Meghalaya government doesn’t have the latest data of the BPL families in the state as the Community and Rural Development department is carrying out “social-economic” survey to determine its number.
Food and Civil Supplies minister RC Laloo informed the assembly Thursday of the C&RD effort of compiling the BPL list.
Laloo was answering to a query by legislator Manas Chaudhuri who said that large number of poor people in the state was being deprived of benefits under the BPL category due to the delay on part of the government to include them under the welfare scheme.
Giving an example, Chaudhuri said many poor people, living below the poverty line were unable to avail the benefits provided by the Shillong-based North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) as they did not possess BPL cards.
Chaudhuri informed that NEIGRIHMS has the provision for waiving off up to 80 per cent of medical costs incurred by patients belonging to the BPL category.
Laloo also informed that as of now Meghalaya has a total of 1, 12, 800 BPL ration card holders, 1, 26, 556 above poverty line (APL) card holders and 70, 200 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) card holders as of date. He revealed that the government has proposals to create more card-holders in the state in the near future.- By Our Reporter
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