With the State Cabinet approving the guidelines , the survey to identify five lakh of the poorest families in the State is expected to be completed within four-and-a-half months, Local Self-Governments Minister M.V. Govindan has said.
The Cabinet has also appointed Santosh Kumar, Additional Development Commissioner (Rural Development Commissionerate), as the nodal officer of the activities.
The programme was one of the first major announcements made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after taking charge in the Left Democratic Front’s second term. He had announced that the government aimed to uplift all families below the poverty line within the next five years.
The main aim of the programme is to identify destitute families, who have not got the benefits of any of the existing schemes, and bring them above the poverty line through various projects. Micro plans have been prepared ahead of the survey.
Pilot surveys will be conducted to ensure that the main survey remains error-free.
The respective grama sabha or ward sabha will have to approve the list of poor people from each of the localities, before it is finalised.
Mr. Govindan says the government will ensure that only the deserving find a place on the list. The poor families will be identified by considering all basic parameters, including food, shelter, health, and employment.
Families without any income, those having bedridden patients with serious illnesses, those having differently abled members and not having steady source of income, migrant worker families permanently residing in the State and not having a regular source of income, those having senior citizens and any other category of families that are facing poverty will be identified. Special focus will be on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families, fishworker families, and the urban poor.
