Govt pulled up for delay in identifying poor in rural areas

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel today criticised the government over "inordinate delay" in coming up with a methodology for identification of below poverty line rural households and asked the Rural Development Ministry to analyse reasons for the delay in Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011.

Expressing "dismay" over no BPL census having been conducted for the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) during the previous UPA government, the Standing Committee on Rural Development headed by AIADMK member P Venugopal said this led to a situation of having "no updated data about BPL" for a long span of time, "denying the targetted assistance to needy and downtrodden sections" of the society all these years.

Rejecting the Ministry's arguments for the delay, the panel concluded that the role of GoI was "not at all proactive on this vital aspect of identification of poor in rural areas during all these years" and recommended that the Ministry analyse reasons for the delay in conducting BPL Census 2011 in proper persective.

In July this year, government released the first Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), first in eight decades that is expected to help it in effective implementation of its programmes but refrained from releasing the caste-based data.

The committee noted that BPL censuses were conducted for the eighth, ninth and tenth five year plans in time and asked the Ministry to fix reponsibility for the delay on agencies, rejecting its argument that it is not possible to do so since SECC is a massive and complex project undertaken after a long time since 1931.