BJP slams PM over Planning Commission' affidavit with revised BPL cap

New Delhi, Sep 21 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday lashed out at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh over the Planning Commission's affidavit to country's apex court concerning the revised poverty line.

The Planning Commission had on Tuesday filed a fresh affidavit describing the cap defining BPL population in urban and rural areas for identification of poor people for the distribution of additional food grains at BPL prices.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar taking on Dr. Singh said this is the worst failure of an economist Prime Minister.

"This is the worst failure of the economist Prime Minister, first to manage the economy, to manage the inflation and now even to give justice to the poor. He has failed miserably on all basic parameters of management of economy and he is the economist Prime Minister, who has failed this nation. That is why BJP will oppose this affidavit on all available forums," said Javadekar.

The Planning Commission told the apex court yesterday that the below poverty line (BPL) population in the country is 40.74 crore and the poverty line for the urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs. 965 per capita per month (around Rs. 32 per day) and Rs. 781 per capita per month (around Rs. 26 per day), respectively.

The Planning Commission, in an affidavit, said that the BPL population at present touched by the Public Distribution Services (PDS) was 35.98 crore.

Javadekar also hit out at the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre saying it has cheated the people belonging to the poor sections of the society.

"The government has betrayed the poor by filing this worst kind of affidavit, in the Supreme Court defining the below poverty line bench marks. To say that somebody who is earning less than Rs.32 per day is poor in urban India and the one who is getting less than Rs.26 is only poor and those getting Rs. 27 and Rs. 32 are not poor, they are better off, is nothing but the worst insult inflicted upon the poorer sections of the society, this is denying justice," he said.

Javadekar further challenged the government to clarify its stand on revised BPL benchmark.

"We challenge the government that they should come forward and discuss the niceties and various points regarding this affidavit because this is betrayal of the poor. You are denying the justice to the poor and on the other hand you are inflicting injustice," said Javadekar.

"You are perpetuating it, you are denying justice by saying that you are not poor. You are simply changing the benchmark, changing the goal post, changing the definition and this is unheard of," he added.

The Planning Commission responded to a direction from the court to revise norms of per capita amount and update its poverty line figures to reflect rising prices. The poverty line is based on expenditure as on June 2011. (ANI)