A Poor Country: former Mayor and councilors are Below Poverty Line
10 Jan, 2014Some applications were filed with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of the status of BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders in the municipal corporation.
The replies to the applications revealed that many councilors of different political parties, including Congress and Bhartiya Janata Party, have been enjoying the subsidies of BPL card holders meant for economically destitute population. As councilors, these individuals enjoy heavy perks along with bungalow, car and attendants. Such list also includes a former Mayor, Kanaji Thakore too. It has also come to the fore that most of these councilors have been avoiding revealing their financial statements though they had been posted in the AMC in various capacities.
The municipal corporation has decided to strike off these names from the list of Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders. It has put removal of these 23 serving and ex-municipal councilors on its weekly agenda. The names which would now be removed includes Janaki Chauhan, Hari Makwana, Praveen Parmar, Jignesh Parmar, Ganpat Parmar, Kanaji Thakore, Jamalpur Mushtaq Ahmed Khadiwala, Gayaprasad Moolchand Kanodia and Jagdish Kantilala Parmar. Further, the name of Amrish Patel, a BJP councilor from Asarwa who was also an MLA few years ago, shall also be removed from the BPL list.