 |
| Kumari Selja |
New Delhi, Oct. 18: The controversy over the Rs 32-a-day poverty line ceiling appears to have kicked off a minor storm in Congress corridors, with one minister upset that a colleague had hogged the limelight.
Kumari Selja, the minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation, has accused the Planning Commission of ignoring her ministry during the controversy while Jairam Ramesh, her colleague in the rural development ministry, had appeared at a media conference called by the panel.
In an October 5 letter to plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Selja said most decisions by the commission regarding poverty estimation came to her notice through media clippings.
“Constrained to point out that the Planning Commission has not consulted the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation on the issue, although both the ministry of rural development and urban poverty alleviation have together initiated the socio-economic and caste census, 2011….”
The controversy over the BPL ceilings had erupted after the panel filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court defining a person living below the poverty line as one unable to spend more than Rs 32 a day in urban areas, or Rs 26 a day in rural areas. The ceilings were based on a methodology prescribed by a committee headed by economist Suresh Tendulkar.
Sources in Selja’s ministry said she had twice written to the plan panel opposing the Tendulkar committee report. The Planning Commission, however, did not take note of the letters. But Ramesh’s seven-page missive about the ceilings was taken seriously.
Ramesh had written to Ahluwalia on September 22. He was called for consultations and, by October 3, the commission had clarified its stand.
At a media conference called by the commission where Ramesh was also present, it was announced that the poverty line of the Planning Commission might no longer necessarily be the eligibility criteria for social welfare schemes.
No comments:
Post a Comment