The Himachal Pradesh government has amended the selection and verification of below poverty line (BPL) families. According to the new orders, families who worked at least 5 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) during the financial year (2025-26) will also be included in the BPL list.
According to the Department of Rural Development, this decision has been made to provide the benefits of the scheme to needy families. The order stated that eligible applicants who were missed from the first phase to the sixth phase (Phase-1 to Phase-6) of the BPL survey will now also be considered. Additionally, new applications will be accepted until May 5, 2026.
After the process is completed, the state-level committee will release the seventh phase list of BPL family’s village-wise. Through this list, eligible families will be able to avail the benefits of government schemes.
There will be no changes to the pre-prepared BPL list
The government has clarified that the actions taken and the lists prepared in earlier phases will remain as they are, while for the seventh phase, the process of verification, approval, and appeal will be adopted based on revised criteria.
Excluded eligible families can be included in the list
According to the Department of Rural Development, this step has been taken to increase transparency and ensure that the benefits of government schemes reach those in need. This is expected to provide relief to families who were so far excluded from the BPL list for some reason.
It is worth noting that in Himachal, the process of selecting eligible BPL families has been ongoing for four to five months. Before this, six phases of selecting eligible families have been completed. Now, it is the seventh phase.