Elders tutor govt on poverty and Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The Janata Dal (United) on Monday favoured direct cash transfer to the bank accounts of BPL card-holders, rather than granting subsidies to them, as a means to uplift the poor.

Participating in the motion of thanks to the presidential address in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, JD(U) member N K Singh suggested a slew of measures to reduce the number of people below the poverty line across the country. These included the proposal to set up a ���commission on poverty amelioration��� to examine all aspects of the problem in India, including the conflicting definitions, numbers, estimates, and methodologies. The panel, he said, should be asked to submit its report in six months.

On the panel���s composition, Mr Singh felt it should be bi-partisan in nature, representing different shades of ideological opinions as poverty amelioration, according to him, should be ���a national quest.���

The direct cash transfer scheme, the JD(U) member argued, had been tried out successfully in Brazil. He also came out in support of replacing the Food Security Act with a National Livelihood Act.

The JD(U) leader found fault with the estimates of poverty put out by the Planning Commission, and cited the two recent reports of World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to suggest that the figures were, as a matter of fact, much larger in the country.
Expressing his dismay over the cold-shoulder given to agriculture in the presidential address, Mr Singh called for the enactment of a new law, the Agricultural Credit Access and Disbursement Act, which would enforce a minimum target of 20 to 40% to be specifically set for the small and marginal farmers who have land holdings below 2 hectares within the overall target, and the creation of an agricultural credit subsidy fund for enabling access to credit at 4% interest.

Former Union minister Arun Shourie, in the meanwhile, accused the Centre of depending too much on the US while dealing with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

���Don���t run to Mummy (the US) all the time. Pakistan is not dependent on the US, rather it is the other way round as America wants an honourable exit from the war it started in the region against terrorism and for this it needs Pakistan���s support,��� the senior BJP leader told the Rajya Sabha while participating in the discussion on the motion of thanks.

He cautioned the government against getting involved in sending evidences about Mumbai attacks to Pakistan as ���this will put it in a position of being a judge.���

The BJP leader contended that the country needed to understand the objectives of the US in the region and its compulsions. ���Look at the nature of the Pakistani state. Has it changed? Look at the objectives of the US in the region and its compulsions. This will give a realistic view,��� Mr Shourie argued.

The Rajya Sabha member added that while the US was trying to restrain India from taking any aggressive stand against Pakistan, there was also a lot of pressure from Washington on New Delhi to keep peace with the neighbouring country. India, Mr Shourie warned, would be under pressure in the near future to sign a slew of treaties and agreements like nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the CTBT and the additional protocol of IAEA.