By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday accused United Progerssive Alliance (UPA) government of being insincere about its promise of inclusive growth, saying it had come out with several versions of poverty line since 2004.
Talking to mediapersons here, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the Planning Commission had earlier estimated poverty at 27 percent based on National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) findings.
She said the Suresh Tendulkar committee had categorised 37 percent of population under poverty line while the Arjun Sengupta panel had said nearly 77 percent were poor.
Sitharaman said she was not questioning the findings of the panels but “government’s attempts (to estimate poor) had so many different versions”.
The UPA government had been promising inclusive growth but was not clear about the number of poor, she said.
Sitharaman remarks come in the context of Planning Commission stance in the Supreme Court that poverty line be fixed at Rs.965 per capita per month for people in urban areas and Rs.781 per capita per month for people in rural areas, working out to daily amounts of Rs.32 and Rs.26 respectively.
Following the urproar over the plan panel’s poverty line cut-off, its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had said Monday that the the poverty cut offs would remain a relevant reference point to see how development initiatives take individuals above a fixed line over time.
However, he clarified that there was no link between the state-wise poverty estimates and selection of beneficiaries for government schemes.