Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahulwalia on Saturday claimed that the poverty was coming down at a rapid pace compared to 2004.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of launch of Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows Programme at Andhra Pradesh Rural Development Academy here, Ahluvalia said that the poverty line was never fixed by the Planning Commission. “When the United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2004, we felt that there were many agencies who were reviewing the poverty. Therefore, the government constituted the Tendulkar Committee to study the poverty line,” he said.
Condemning criticism over the methodology adopted to measure poverty, he said that during pre-UPA period, the decline in poverty ratio per year was 0.74 percent but after 2004, it has improved to 1.5%. He, however, clarified that the poverty line should not be linked to other welfare schemes. For instance, he said free education under the Right To Education Act or Food Security were not linked to the poverty line.
He said that the government has never claimed that the poverty has been eliminated. It just said that it was on a decline at a rapid place. He said that the Planning Commission would soon set up a technical committee comprising experts to look into the whole issue. He said based on the recommendations of the proposed committee, poverty would be measured using a new methodology from the 12th Five Year Plan onwards. (INN)