Chandigarh, Sept 22: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said he was shocked to learn that in the eyes of the Centre a person earning Rs 25 in villages and Rs 32 in urban areas was rich.
“This is the most cruel joke ever played on the poor in this country and amounts to rubbing salt into their wounds. It is beyond anyone's understanding as to how a government can base its policies on such weird presumptions,” he said. “By these standards India has suddenly been transformed into a land of the rich. Is this the UPA's way of removing poverty in the country? the Chief Minister posed.
Badal said that the spiralling prices of essential commodities had not only broken the back of the already suffering common man but had also unleashed new nflationary trends which in turn would further slow down the growth rate. PTI