Issues concerning poverty definition resolved: Montek, Ramesh

New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Amid controversy over the
definition of poverty, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Rural Development Minister Jairam
Ramesh claimed on Monday that they have resolved the issue.
"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 told reporters after the meeting.
Ahluwalia and Ramesh will also be addressing a joint
press conference later in the day to outline the strategy to
counter widespread criticism of Rs 32 per capita per day urban
poverty line definition.
"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.
Ahluwalia, who returned from his 10-day-long foreign
visit on Saturday, had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on
the issue on Sunday.
He had discussed with Singh the fallout of the
controversy relating to the affidavit in the Supreme Court,
which said that persons consuming items worth more than Rs 32
per day in urban areas (Rs 26 in rural areas) are not poor.
As per the affidavit, a family of five spending less than
Rs 4,824 per month (at June, 2011, prices) in urban areas will
fall in the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category. The expenditure
limit for a family 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.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is believed to
have intervened in the matter and has reportedly asked the
Plan panel to do a rethink on its definition of poverty.
Even Ramesh had earlier expressed disagreement over the
Commission's formula for arriving at the poverty line of Rs 32
a day and Rs 26 a day in urban and rural areas respectively.
Besides, National Advisory Council (NAC) member Aruna Roy
and Harsh Mander challenged the Rs 32 per person poverty
definition of the Commission.
Other members of the NAC, which is headed by Congress
President Sonia Gandhi, too had opposed Commission's
definition.
Ridiculing the Commission's poverty line, NAC member N C
Saxena had said, "on Rs 32 a day, you know only dogs and
animals can live... People who are spending below Rs 32 they
are poorest of the poor. You can call them destitute, you can
call them people living in sub-human level."
Concerned over the public outcry, Information and
Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had said, "The Planning
Commission had given an affidavit. When we asked for
information from the panel regarding it, we were told that it
is an initial document and not the final document."
These figures, she had said, "could undergo a change, who
knows some other statistics may come up, which is acceptable
to the Planning Commission. There is concern among people.
There is a certain disquiet in the civil society and some
sections. They believe the statistics are perhaps somewhat
removed from reality." PTI KKS
MNS