The government is being compelled to modify the poverty line guide lines due to the strong protest from political parties and eminent personalities. Below is a report from Delhi:

NEW DELHI: The government will soon revise the contentious poverty line upward from Rs 27.20 in rural areas and Rs 33.40 in urban areas after it receives the report of the Rangarajan committee that is examining the validity of the current yardstick.

Minister of state for planning Rajeev Shukla told TOI the government was in the process of re-evaluating the poverty line in a bid to make it as comprehensive a measure of social and economic backwardness as possible.

After both Congress and opposition leaders debunked expenditure of Rs 27 and Rs 33 per person per day as a benchmark for defining poverty, the government said the line had not been cast in stone.

“The poverty line is being reassessed. The Rangarajan committee is doing just that. In any case, the poverty line is not linked to pro-poor programmes like rural job guarantee or food security,” Shukla said. (courtesy: TOI)