After returning from a 10-day foreign trip, Ahluwalia met prime minister on Sunday.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, planning commission deputy chairperson and the target of several brickbats and much derision, seems to have realised at last that Rs32 a day is probably not enough to provide a person with adequate food, clothing and education in our cities.
After returning from a 10-day foreign trip, Ahluwalia met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday. He is supposed to clarify the commission’s stand today.
A few weeks ago, the commission had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that Rs32 a day in urban areas and Rs25 in rural areas was enough for sustenance. This also meant a below poverty line (BPL) cap: those who earned Rs32/25 daily would not be entitled to various BPL welfare schemes.
The affidavit left the Congress-led government at the Centre embarrassed because the party had portrayed itself as a champion of the aam aadmi during the 2004 and 2009 elections. Several activists, NGOs and political parties criticised the commission and even challenged Ahluwalia and his team to survive on the measly amount.
A source said Ahluwalia would meet some of the commission’s members today to revise the poverty figures and prepare a fresh affidavit. In fact, the affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court had riven the commission itself, the source said. At least two members, Mihir Shah and Abhijeet Sen, had told Ahluwalia that they were opposed to the affidavit.
Aruna Roy, a member of the national advisory council (NAC) headed by Sonia Gandhi, wrote to Ahluwalia asking him to live on Rs32 a day.
“The commission has so far argued that the figures mentioned in the Suresh Tendulkar report were comprehensive and final for estimating poverty,” the source said. “But they are revising it now to file a fresh affidavit that will delink the Tendulkar report from the poverty figures.”
This means the commission has realised how unrealistic the Rs32 cap was. Both Sen and Shah had argued that the Tendulkar report was only a prescription to evolve a methodology to determine poverty. Neither the planning commission nor Ahluwalia clarified how a methodology became the final estimate. “How can a method to decide who is poor become an estimate of the poor itself? That is an absurd proposition,” said one of the members on Sunday.
The source indicated that a fresh affidavit has already been drafted and key members of the commission, including Ahluwalia, would debate it at today’s meeting. The final version of the affidavit would then be filed in the Supreme Court.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}