Taking on the Planning Commision for its definition of poverty, Parkash Singh Badal said it was unaware of the ground reality and dared the plan panel to show how its members can manage their daily expenses with a "paltry" Rs28 a day.
Taking on the Planning Commision for its definition of poverty, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday said it was unaware of the ground reality and dared the plan panel to show how its members can manage their daily expenses with a "paltry" Rs28 a day.
Speaking on the third day of his thanksgiving tour in the Lambi assembly segment, Badal said by claiming that anyone with a daily consumption expenditure of Rs28.35 and Rs22.42 in urban and rural areas respectively is above the poverty line, the Commission has made mockery of the poor people.
He said it was unfortunate that the Commission has said that people earning more then minuscule figure of Rs28 in rural areas were rich in the country.
It has once again proved that the Congress-led UPA government which claims to be the sympathiser of the common man is totally insensitive to his problems, he said.
"The members of the Commission owe an explanation to the countrymen that whether they can manage their own daily expenses at Rs28," he said.
Badal claimed that such "baseless polices" are framed by these people sitting in their air conditioned offices without examining the ground reality, which further add to the woes of the poor people.
He said owing to uncontrollable inflation witnessed in under the UPA government it has become difficult for anybody to manage their household and at a time like this claims of the plan panel only rub salt into the wounds of the poor.
"The people who fix such caps are hardly aware of the spiraling rates of the basic commodities due to which they make such cruel jokes with the countrymen," Badal said.
Interacting with reporters later, the Chief Minister said that the state government was fully committed for the development of the cities across the state, adding that all the cities of the state would get a major facelift as they would get basic civic amenities like water, sewerage, street lights and roads by the year 2015.
Asked to comment on the promises made by the SAD-BJP alliance in its poll manifesto, Badal said the state government was committed to fulfilling all of them.
He said it has just been a month since SAD-BJP returned to power in the state but the government has started making efforts to ensure that all the poll promises are fulfilled in the coming days.
Refuting apprehensions regarding closure of the scheme for free distribution of bicycles to school going girls, he said the Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme was a flagship programme of their government and it would never be stopped.
However, he said they would be extending this benefit to school going girls of two more classes.
The Chief Minister said that in a bid to implement the programmes as per the felt needs of the people state, he has directed top officers of various departments to conduct a village level survey across the state for knowing the needs and problems of the people.
He further said that the officers of the government have already started such surveys which would be very beneficial for redressing the problems of the people.
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