Nearly five lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries have been identified as ‘ineligible’ and the State government has cancelled the BPL cards of more than 50% of those identified. Among those identified to be using the BPL cards include income tax payers and government servants from whom a fine amount totalling to ₹9.43 crore has been collected.
Extensively using the technology, the Food and Civil Supplies Department has identified those ineligible as per the parameters laid down to hold BPL cards. HRMS, Bhoomi, e-vahan, e-janma and Aadhaar among many other database were used to weed out ineligible persons.
Among those whose cards were cancelled included 85,000 income tax payers, 21,200 government employees and 50,000 families that earned more than ₹1.2 lakh per annum. The effort has also identified 2.18 lakh farmers, who became ineligible since they hold more than three hectares of farm land.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Umesh Katti said that a total of 2.66 lakh BPL cards have been cancelled already, and 1.21 lakh cards of farmers with more than 3 hectares have also been cancelled. Besides, names of 7.59 lakh dead persons have been deleted. The exercise is estimated to save ₹18 crore to the State exchequer.
The Minister said that many farmers had contested the three-hectare norm citing that their property was a HuF property or absence of a partition. The Revenue Department was vested with the responsibility to identify ‘genuine’ cases.
