Gandhinagar, Mar 28 (PTI) The Gujarat government on Monday informed the Assembly that over 31 lakh households in the state were registered as 'Below Poverty Line (BPL)' families, with 2,558 households getting added between September, 2020 and August last year amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Responding to a query raised by Congress MLA Chandrika Bariya, state Rural Development Minister Arjunsinh Chauhan stated in his written reply that there were 31,56,541 BPL households in Gujarat as on August, 2021.

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The minister added that BPL households were identified by the state Rural Development department as per the socio-economic parameters set by the Centre.

"Between September, 2020 and August, 2021, a time when Gujarat witnessed the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2,558 new households were added in the BPL list. In October, 2020, as many as 1,259 families, the highest in that period, were identified and added as BPL households. It was followed by 377 in February, 2021, 247 in June, 2021 and 136 households in September, 2020," he said.

As against the addition of over 2,500 new BPL households, there was a reduction of only two BPL households between September, 2020 and August, 2021, stated the minister.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)