Opposition parties slammed the Planning Commission’s claim that the number of poor in India had come down to 34.47 crore in 2009-10 from 40.72 crore in 2004-2005 in both the Houses of Parliament.

They questioned the new cut-offs (Rs 29 per day, per person in urban areas and Rs 22 in rural areas) for selecting people living below the poverty line.

“They are eliminating the poverty line and bringing in a starvation line. Let the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister spend their life with Rs 29 and Rs 22 per day,” BJP leader, Mr S.S Ahluwalia, said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The Congress, too, kept itself away from the new cut-off limit. Congress spokesperson, Mr Manish Tiwari, said the need of the hour was honest efforts to “wipe out” poverty from the country than controversy over number of the poor.

Later talking to reporters, Mr Ahluwalia said the Government should bring in a mechanism to find out the actual number of poor. “Children in this country are dying of malnutrition. The Arjun Sengupta Committee had said 80 per cent of the people get less that Rs 20 a day. There are estimates by Saxena and Tendulkar Committees as well. I don’t know from where this Government is getting its data,” Mr Ahluwalia added.

The CPI (M) termed the Plan panel’s poverty estimates as a dishonest attempt to conceal the reality of glaring inequalities and increasing poverty.

“We demand that the Prime Minister should make a categorical statement that these fraudulent poverty measures will not be used to deny poor people of their right to BPL cards or be used as a benchmark for allocating funds to the states or for welfare programmes,” its Polit Bureau said in a statement. (courtsey: Hindu)