Yog Raj Sharma
The North News
Shimla, January 2
The Himachal BJP has accused the Congress government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of deliberately targeting the poorest sections of society through proposed changes to Below Poverty Line (BPL) norms. State BJP president Rajeev Bindal said the new criteria would sharply reduce the number of BPL beneficiaries and exclude even “genuine and extremely poor families” from welfare schemes. He described the move as a “planned attempt” to deprive the poor of their rights rather than an administrative reform.
Bindal alleged that over the past three years the Congress government had made life increasingly difficult for the poor, the middle class and daily-wage earners. He said that while the government spoke of “system change”, its policies were resulting in what he called a systemic failure for vulnerable communities. Referring to the Centre’s Viksit Bharat – Rozgar aur Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), Bindal said the Narendra Modi-led government had announced 125 days of employment and additional facilities for rural and poor households. He accused the Himachal government of making “irresponsible statements” on the scheme and misleading villagers.
The BJP leader also alleged that the state had earlier failed to deposit its share under MGNREGA, depriving rural families of benefits while blaming the Centre. He said a similar pattern was now being repeated.
Bindal further claimed that large sums released by the central government for disaster-affected families had not reached beneficiaries, with allegations of misuse and diversion of relief funds. He said the Centre had released ₹300 crore and an additional ₹601 crore for Himachal Pradesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president J P Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah, but the state government had failed to utilise the money effectively.
He warned that the BJP would continue to protest “from the streets to the legislature” to protect the rights of BPL families and disaster-affected people, and to highlight what he termed anti-poor policies of the Congress government.
