Congress attacks Narendra Modi on Gujarat BPL figure

NEW DELHI: Congress on Monday attacked the Narendra Modi regime for fixing Rs 10.80 daily as Below Poverty Line (BPL) criteria for people of Gujarat. Citing BPL criteria, found on Gujarat government website, Congress has asked Narendra Modi to apologise to the poor for “insulting” and making a “mockery” of them.

AICC communication department chairman Ajay Maken, reminding Modi and his party that BJP had made a big issue of Planning Commission’s BPL figure of Rs 32 and Rs 28 a day in urban and rural areas and had described it as a “joke”, asked “if pegging earning below Rs 32 per day is a joke, then how can the Modi government fixing the BPL limit to Rs 10.80 be described”.

“Leaders and spokespersons of the BJP were mocking the poverty determination figures given by the Planning Commission. Now we ask the BJP and Modi, why Gujarat government's civil supply department talked about below poverty line belowRs 10.80. People of the country want to know this. By giving this figure is Modi-led BJP government not playing a joke with people. BJP and Modi both should apologize to the nation, to the poor for insulting and making a mockery of them,” Maken said.

He also released a copy of the website page of Gujarat government regarding the BPL critieria for consideration of familiies to be covered under the Antodaya Yojana in the state, which said that under the scheme those families, whose members' average monthly income is Rs 324 in rural areas and up to Rs 501 in urban areas in a month are covered.

The wesbsite also said that while the government fixed the number of BPL families in the state at 13.10 lakh, the state has covered 24.30 lakh BPL families.