Port Blair, June 18: The Councillor of Ward No. 15 Smti Sheela Singh has urged Lt. Governor for providing free books to all students of class 10th to 12th and conduct a fresh BPL survey. In regard of this she also highlighted the problems being faced by the students especially belonging to poor families who cannot afford the high cost of study materials including books and notebooks.
At present the students of class 1st to 8th are only provided with free books by the Administration and for student of 10th to 12th, free books are provided only to those students who belong to poor families and are in the BPL list.
In her letter she said that the BPL list of A&N Islands is almost 15 years old and the last survey was conducted in the year 1998 whereas the list was released in the year 2002.
“As everybody is aware that the BPL list is updated every 10 years but in this case, it has been more than 15 years since the list has been updated,” she added.
She further added that the actual percentage of people living below poverty line (BPL) in A&N Islands is much higher than the NSSO data.
Further, she said according to the above figure a large number of deserving poor people in the Islands have been deprived of the benefits of various Socio Economic Development Scheme of Govt. of India. “It is disheartening to know that the benefits of Govt. Schemes are not reaching to the deserving poor people because of such unreliable NSSO data,” she said.
She urged Lt. Governor of the Islands to intervene in the matter so that the poor who are deprived of the benefits can be benefitted.
