Write ‘I am poor’ outside houses of poor: Chouhan

BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh government plans to write “I am poor” on walls of houses of people who hold ‘below poverty line’ (BPL) cards to discourage the non-deserving families from availing benefits of the scheme, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Friday.

Talking to newsmen on the conclusion of the four-day special assembly session, convened to discuss the issue of creating a golden state, the chief minister said the government was compelled to curtail the foodgrain quota of the poor because the central government was providing grains for 41 lakh BPL families while there were 61 lakh such families in the state.

Chouhan said: “Since there have been too many complaints of well-off people getting themselves included in the BPL list, the government is planning to write ‘I am poor’ on the walls of the houses of the BPL card holders as a last resort to force the non-deserving people to surrender their cards.”

On whether this move would humiliate the poor, the chief minister said: “Why would the poor mind it? On the contrary, well-off people would surrender their cards”.

Chouhan also vowed to convert Madhya Pradesh into a ’swarnim’ (golden) state, and appealed to all, including the opposition, to contribute towards fulfilling that dream.

“I have a development plan as per the members’ suggestions and will leave no stone unturned to achieve the objectives,” Chouhan added.

Main opposition Congress boycotted the session while denouncing it as unconstitutional and protested through demonstration at the assembly’s main entrance.

Earlier in August 2009, the Narasinghpur district administration had come in for flak for initiating a move to paint the walls of the economically poor and the poorest in blue and yellow colours respectively corresponding to the colours of the cards for the two categories of villagers.