BJP hits back at Cong on poverty subsidy issue

BJP today hit back at Congress for its attack on Gujarat government for using Rs 10.80 a day poverty figures to identify beneficiaries of subsidy, saying this was the domain of the Centre and the ruling party has not done its homework before targeting Narendra Modi.

Criticising Congress for the Centre's asset-based criterion, which has not been revised for long despite requests from Gujarat government, BJP said the state has instead added 11 lakh more BPL families to help them benefit from poverty subsidy.

"Poverty-line criterion determination is an exclusive domain of the Planning Commission and the Centre...The sense of outrage with which Congress Party has started criticizing the Gujarat CM, they have done so without properly realizing that the flak is on them...I wish Congress party does a bit of their homework," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.

She said BJP is sure that Gujarat government will release dates of various reminders sent to the Union Government to review the criteria.

Sitharaman said Congress has jumped on the opportunity to target Narendra Modi even without giving a second thought to the fact that such a criterion was fixed by the Centre in 2004 and not revised, despite reminders by Gujarat.

"This time too, without as much as doing minimum homework, they have jumped into using an issue which, upon closer study, only highlights Congress' own failure," Sitharaman said.

The BJP leader alleged that the UPA government has continuously delayed deciding on how many people are below the poverty line. "The Union Government is still not clear how many people fall under below poverty line."

She added Gujarat government has been reminding the Centre to change the criterion for poverty determination which has not been done. "Why haven't they reviewed it. Does that power lie with anyone else? It is the Union Government and the Planning Commission which have to do it," she said.