Defensive Congres says poverty data on BPL determination not final

Faced with a barrage of criticism over the Planning Commission data that Rs25 per day is sufficient to take care of ‘basic needs of average citizens’, the Congress party has gone on the defensive and argued that this data is open to correction.

“We feel that the Planning Commission will welcome all inputs from any source in the context of this data. Individuals, sections of civil society and others can make their contributions, and this would be taken seriously. But then we should not dismiss it out of hand, as this is the outcome of some extensive work,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Singhvi said the data should be looked at as a piece of statistics and should be not taken in the context of specific cases. But he refrained from expressing the party’s view on the fact that the Planning Commission had come to this conclusion about the adequacy of Rs25 per day for a citizen to meet his or daily needs.