Irrespective of political affiliation, opposition parties as well as some of the allies of the ruling Congress, sharply attacked the Planning Commission, its Chairman Prime minister and the government for the condemnable statistics put by the Planning Commission on the poverty line stating that the % of poverty in the country as gone down. Some of the points raised in the Parliament are briefly given below:

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia was in the eye of a storm in the Lok Sabha today over the fresh poverty estimates pegging poverty line at Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities.     “Ahluwalia is away from ground realities. He needs to be removed as every time he speaks, things go wrong. He has never spoken a good thing. No one is agreeing with the latest data,” NDA convenor and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav said in an impromptu discussion.     “Shoot the poor…give them poison…if you want to end poverty like this,” he said.     Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj targeted the government over this issue noting that it was wrong to blame the Plan panel as the Prime Minister himself headed the body.     Asserting that responsibility lay with the government and not the Planning Commission, she appealed to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was present in the House, to reject the latest estimates.     Regretting that poverty was not coming down, she alleged that efforts were on to wipe out the poor and not poverty.     SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav said people sitting in airconditioned rooms were blurting out figures when the reality was that 65 per cent of the population was below poverty line without proper electricity and potable water.     Accusing the plan panel of betraying the country, he said one cannot have even proper snacks for Rs 32 and the Planning Commission wanted people to live in that amount.     V Arun Kumar (Cong) alleged that opposition members were trying to mislead Parliament as the Plan panel has told the Supreme Court that the figures were per capita and not for the whole family. The per family figures are Rs 4,824 for the urban areas and Rs 3,905 for rural areas a month. T R Baalu (DMK) regretted that the criteria of deciding poverty line has not been fixed so far which was creating problems for state governments in implementing welfare schemes.     “Let the Planning Commission show its inputs to a Parliamentary Committee so that a proper criteria for the BPL could be fixed”, he said.     Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) said that no prudent person could come to the conclusion on the poverty estimates and the whole issue should be reconsidered by the Planning Commission.     He wanted chief ministers of all states should be consulted while deciding price indices.     Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD) justified members’ anger over the issue while Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) said it was a mockery of the poor. He said the House should pass a resolution expressing disagreement over the Plan panel data.     M Thambidurai (AIADMK) said it was time the Planning Commission realised the true gravity of poverty, while Prabodh Panda (CPI) said the proposal was condemnable and the Prime Minister should make a statement in the House.     B Mahtab (BJD) alleged that the Planning Commission was confusing the whole country as a good lawyer who confuses the court when his case is weak.     Baliram (BSP) took a dig at the Commission and said with the latest figures India can now show to the world that there are no poor in the country.     Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) alleged that the Plan panel used “fraudulent methods” to arrive at the latest figures and said with 8 per cent inflation, none can survive at Rs 22 a day.

The rule-makers of the country, it seems, are not worried about implementing the rules for themselves.  Many of the M.P.s are not in the habit of paying their dues in time. Now it is about the charges for the water and electricity they have used for years together. For an RTI, the reply has been given that Rs. 6 crores are in arrears from the M.P.s towards the above charges. There are dues for telephone charges also. Many former M.P.s are not vacating their quarters even after the Director of Estates has asked them to do so. However, the Left M.P.s seems to be better, with none of their names coming in the arrears list so far.

The M.P.s instead of being in arrears of dues should be in the forefront of settling their dues.

New Delhi, March 20: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) condemns the efforts of the Planning Commission to use fraudulent methods to deliberately underestimate the level of poverty in the country. In spite of the national outrage when the Planning Commission had given its earlier estimates to the Supreme Court, it has retained the same poverty measure suggested by the Tendulkar Committee. This has meant an absurdly low national poverty line of Rs. 22.40 per day for an adult in rural areas and Rs. 28.65 per day for an adult in urban areas, in 2009-10. Anyone spending more that this is being categorized as non-poor. On the basis of these flawed figures, the Planning Commission claims that the proportion of BPL persons has gone down by 7 per cent between 2004-05 to 2009-10.

This shows the huge gap between the members of the Planning Commission and the reality lived by crores of people in this country who have been burdened by relentless price rise amidst meager incomes. It hardly needs to be stated that these are destitution lines and it is a shame that an institution chaired by the Prime Minister should produce such absurd figures.

What is shocking is that even with these gross under-estimates, large proportions of our population are shown to continue living in destitution. The proportion ranges from 37-39% in states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha to around 50% in Bihar and Chattisgarh. Shockingly, the North Eastern states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland are showing an increase in destitution levels. This calls the bluff of “inclusive growth” under the UPA government.

Even the recently released Household Amenities and Assets Census of 2011 shows the extent of poverty in different spheres in India. Out of the 24.6 crore households in India only 29% have a house with concrete roof, only 32% have access to tapped drinking water and only 47% have a latrine facility within the premises. 49.8% of the households still have to defecate in the open; 49% of the households still use firewood as the fuel for cooking and another 17% use cowdung cake or crop residue. 39% of households do not have any kitchen.

The CPI (M) considers the Planning Commission’s poverty estimates to be a dishonest attempt to conceal the reality of glaring inequalities and increasing poverty in India. The CPI (M) demands 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.