Modi govt refutes allegations on BPL income criteria

BPL income criteria should be Rs 2,000 per month, says finance minister Nitin Patel

Refuting the Congress and other parties' allegations on determining the Rs 10.80 poverty line, the Gujarat government today asserted that the figures were decided by the Centre's Planning Commission in 2004.

"They (allegations) are only a political gimmick to raise questions over Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's growing popularity across the country and Gujarat's growth story as a model state.  The allegations are wrong. The norms, procedures and parameters to identify the poverty line are decided by the central government's Planning Commission. It is not a new list being brought out by Gujarat," Nitin Patel, minister of finance and Bhupendra Chudasma, minister of food and civil supplies, Government of Gujarat told mediapersons here on Monday. Patel asserted that despite inflation and food prices rising over 10 times since 2004 till now, the poverty line of Rs 10.80 set by the Planning Commission has remained unchanged. "If anybody is responsible for such low poverty line, it is the Centre," Patel added. The state government stated that according to the Planning Commission, total BPL holders are about 2.1 million, there are additional one million people who have income levels below the poverty line but don't fall under the Planning Commission's criteria.

Meanwhile, when asked about what the ideal poverty line should be at, Patel added, "Though a state government cannot decide, it should be large enough to match the inflation growth. It should be somewhere around Rs 2000, plus or minus."