HC to Gujarat govt: Provide BPL cards to 1.45 lakh applicants

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court directed the state government here on Tuesday to provide below poverty line (BPL) cards to 1.45 lakh applicants from Junagadh district, after processing their applications within two months, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL).

The two-judge Gujarat High Court bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala directed the state government to process all the application and provide BPL cards to them. The court gave this order after hearing a PIL filed by a Congress MLA Jawahar Chavda from Manavadar constituency, in March this year. However, the high court did not accept allegations by the petitioner that Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel allegedly gave oral instructions not to process applications or forms submitted through Chavda. The high court also did not heed the Chavda`s demand to probe denial of BPL cards to poor people and to fix the responsibility for doing so, on Gujarat government authorities. Earlier, the Gujarat state government had submitted before the high court that the Anandi Patel, who was then revenue minister did not give any oral direction to any official in connection with the BPL card issue. The petitioner had submitted that 1.45 lakh applications were filed through Chavda on behalf of people from Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) in 2012. "Applications and forms were submitted to get benefits from several Gujarat state government and central government housing schemes. However, despite making several representations to various authorities, no respite was offered to the poor people," Chavda`s PIL said.