Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 22: CPI-M today said the Planning Commission assessment of pegging poverty line of an individual at Rs 25 per day in rural areas and Rs 36 per day in urban areas is non-transparent and fraudulent method “manipulated to suit interests of UPA government's new neo-liberal policies.”
“The Planning Commission's assessment is a non-transparent and fraudulent method in which poverty lines were manipulated to suit the interests of new liberal policies of the UPA government,” CPI-M Politburo member Brinda Karat told reporters here today.
She alleged that the scientific assessment of the poor by the Commission was a flaw and that it had been done with a motive to cut down share of the poor in national resources.
Stating it was a shame on he country to say one who earns Rs 25 per day would not be eligible for government subsidy, she demanded that the Commission's assessment of poverty be delinked from government schemes for poverty alleviation.
On the proposed Food Security Bill, she said it was disappointing in the present form. States would have to adhere to the Commission's estimates in poverty determination and it would adversely affect the Public Distribution System functioning well in 10 states, she said. PTI
