For the purpose of issuing smart health cards under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY), the state Rural Development department will now be compiling the BPL lists of rural and urban areas under one head.

The department has also invited Expression of Interests from the private IT companies for the conversion, compilation and digitisation of the BPL records.

Till date, while the Rural Development department compiled the BPL list for the rural areas, the department of Food and Civil Supplies compiled the list for the urban areas, thus making two different lists.

Since the scheme covers all individuals from BPL families in rural and urban areas, the department felt the necessity of compiling both lists to ensure that no one is missed.

According to Manoj Kumar Singh, Commissioner (Rural Development), the need of conversion was felt because there was a difference in the present format of the BPL list than that required for the RSBY. “The urban data is available as a hard copy only and there are no soft copies of it,” said Singh.

“Even the rural BPL list is different as the list provides the details of the number of families, but it does not give the details of the number of members present in each family. Since we will be issuing smart cards to everyone who comes under this category, we need specific data,” said Singh.

Singh said: “The biggest problem with the BPL list is that everyone who has a BPL or antodaya ration card may not feature in the BPL list. And then, everyone in the BPL list may not have a ration card. So during the process of compiling, the companies will also be computerising the ration card records, hence ensuring that there is no repetition and the records are complete.”