LUCKNOW: The number of people below the poverty line is on the
decline, and sharply too, in the Prime Minister's constituency.
That is if the records maintained by the Supply department of the
district are to be believed. Officially, the Public Distribution
System has been catering to a sharply declining number of people
below the poverty line (BPL). While a year ago only 5 thousand such
people were availing of foodgrains through the PDS in the Lucknow
urban conglomeration, the number has now come down to 3 thousand or
so. The total population in the urban area is estimated at 16 lakh
as per the 1991 census. What is more important is that over 5 lakh
people above the poverty line (APL) have ration cards in the city.
Clearly, there are lakhs of people living below the poverty line,
who do not have the luxury of ration cards. Cumbersome procedures
and absence of permanent address come in the way of acquiring ration
cards by them. But the state government is yet to organise a
special drive to identify such people, many of them living on daily
wages and homeless, and provide them subsidised foodgrains. The
last such drive to enroll more people from this section was
undertaken way back in 1996.
Officially however, the sources maintained that this sharp fall in
the BPL was due to the rising income of the people, " the ones under
BPL earlier now are the ABL people", quipped the ADM (Civil Supply),
Mr Shyam Lal. Radhe, a rickshaw puller living with a family of
three at Newal Kishore road complained that even though he had
completed the formalities a year back, he is yet to receive his
card. The influential and the well-heeled, he said angrily, were
cornering a majority of the ration cards. Uma, a washerwoman at
Cantt, echoes similar sentiment.
Ironically, the poor are paying Rs 8 for a kilo of wheat and Rs 13
to 16 for coarse rice in the open market while the better off are
collecting similar or better stuff at subsidised rates, which are
almost half of what prevails in the open market. "Kya karen saheb?,
jinda to rahna hai, is liye kam khate hain, daal to bas ki rahi
nahin, isliye roti sabji khate hain", (What to do?, pulses are out
of reach, hence to live we eat less, roti and seasonal vegetables
forming our diet), an aging Ram Lakhan, a vegetable vendor lamented.