Montek defends Rs 32 a day limit for fixing poverty line

Defending Plan panel's criteria under which those who consume items worth more than Rs 32 in urban areas in a day are not poor, its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the limit will not be the basis for extending benefits to the poor.

"We have not made any new policy decision. The Supreme Court asked us how we calculate the poverty line, we gave the factual explanation. I believe the explanation we have given is factually correct," Ahluwalia, who is here to attend the first India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, told the Indian media.

"That it how the poverty lines are set up and that is how poverty lines are updated," he said commenting for the first time after the controversy broke following an affidavit filed by the Planning Commission in the Supreme Court.

In its affidavit, the Planning Commission has stated that a person with consumption of up to Rs 32 per day would be considered poor in urban areas. The per capita consumption limit in rural area has been fixed at Rs 26 a day.

Asserting that the data forwarded to the apex court was set by the Tendulkar Committee which was appointed to define the  poverty line, he said the amount fixed were per each person not per family.

"This is the number the Tendulkar Committee recommended which is an expert group. We accepted that which mean that the poverty numbers  went up", he said.