Cong, BJP spar over Gujarat ‘poverty line’

With the corresponding per day income ceiling working out to be little under Rs 11 in rural areas and Rs 19 in urban areas, Congress charged the Modi government of “insulting” and making a “mockery” of beneficiaries.

“If the implication is that anyone who has an income of Rs 11 or 19 is above the poverty line, (it) has to be rejected,” Chidambaram said. AICC media department chairman Ajay Maken said, “Leaders and spokespersons of the BJP were mocking the poverty determination figures given by the Planning Commission. We ask the BJP and CM Narendra Modi, why Gujarat government’s civil supply department talked about Rs 10.80 per day (in rural areas) as below poverty line. The BJP and Modi should apologise to the nation and the poor for insulting them.”

A recent resolution by the Civil Supply Department has made monthly income certificate mandatory to get new ration cards. It has done away with asset-based evaluation that was considered earlier if the applicant owns land or house under government schemes.

While the Centre’s latest poverty line definition has been available on the Planning Commission website, the Gujarat Government maintains that it has not officially received any revised guidelines since 2004. “We have revised ration card guidelines based on Planning Commission’s poverty line estimates for 2004. The criteria is set by the Centre, not the state,’’ said Gujarat Civil Supply and Rural Development Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma.

Defending the move, the State finance minister Nitin Patel said, “We are going by the state government general resolution of 2006. We are strictly following a GR based on Planning Commission guidelines, which we cannot change. We have represented to Planning Commission several times to revise the estimates.

Accusing Modi of levelling false allegations, Minister of State for Planning Rajeev Shukla said, “He has not updated (his poverty) figures and was still in Vajpayee government mindset. Now the figure is Rs 31.06 for rural areas and Rs 38.40 for urban areas (for Gujarat).”

Slamming the Congress for not doing “home work” on this issue, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said, “ The figures of Rs. 501/ 324 as monthly per capita income criteria for urban/rural respectively is a criteria set in 2004 by the Government of India; this was communicated by the Food and Civil Supplies Department by the Government of Gujarat as criteria prescribed by the GoI. These criteria are not determined by the Gujarat government.”