Rs 32/day cap to define poverty line likely to go

Agencies

New Delhi, 03 October 2011: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday reached consensus on redefining poverty line cut-offs.

 

Speaking to reporters after holding an hour-long meet, Ramesh and Ahluwalia said that they have reached consensus on the issue, and announced they would hold a joint press conference at 3.00 pm today.

 

"Jairam and I had a very good meeting. I think we have resolved a number of important issues... actually all the important issues. I think we are in complete agreement," Ahluwalia said.

 

 

As per reports, the Rs 32 per day expenditure cap would no longer be the criteria for defining poverty line. The two, reportedly, also arrived at a consensus on entitlements.

 

"There is broad consensus on the linkage between poverty line and rural development," Ramesh said after the meeting, which among others was attended by Plan panel members Abhijit Sen, Mihir Shah, Syeda Hameed and Narendra Jadhav.

 

The meeting came in the wake of the Plan panel’s controversial affidavit in the Supreme Court that defined poverty line cut-offs.

 

Ahluwalia had yesterday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clear the Planning Commission’s stance on the issue.

 

The panel’s affidavit in the apex court had put poverty line for urban and rural areas, provisionally, at Rs 965 per capita per month (about Rs 32 per day) for urban areas and Rs 781 per capita per month (about Rs 26 per day) for rural areas.

 

As per the affidavit, a family of five spending less than Rs 4,824 (at June, 2011 prices) in urban areas will fall in the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category. The expenditure limit for a family of five in rural areas has been fixed at Rs 3,905.

 

The number of poor entitled to BPL benefits, as per the affidavit, has been estimated at 40.74 crore, as against 37.2 crore estimated at the time of accepting the Tendulkar Committee report.

 

As per reports, Ahluwalia had told PM that he will discuss the issue of poverty line cut-offs with plan members on Monday and then decide whether to file another affidavit to clear the air on the issue.

 

Ahluwalia is said to have told the PM that poverty line and identification of the poor are not linked and any change in poverty line could have huge financial implications.

 

The Plan panel initially appeared reluctant to reworking the poverty cut-offs, but came under pressure after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi also expressed concern over the matter. Rahul had reportedly asked the Plan panel to do a rethink on its definition of poverty.

 

Meanwhile, officials in the Planning Commission have said that providing benefits to more persons would defeat the purpose of the anti-poverty programme, but not many are convinced.

 

Apart from food rights activists, Opposition parties had also slammed the government over the affidavit.

 

Following the uproar, Ahluwalia said that the affidavit was "factually correct" and it was not a new policy decision but simply a factual explanation given to the apex court on how poverty lines were calculated based on Suresh Tendulkar’s report.

 

Last week, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had admitted that there was concern among people on the issue.

 

She said the figures could undergo a change. "There is a certain disquiet in the civil society and some sections. They believe the statistics are perhaps somewhat removed from reality," she said.

 

National Advisory Council members Aruna Roy and NC Saxena had also expressed reservations over the poverty line cut-offs.

 

Saxena said that only dogs and animals can live at Rs 32 a day, and added people spending that kind of amount were poorest of the poor.