Fight against poverty: Telangana, J&K, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the worst performing states

NEW DELHI: Telangana, J&K, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the worst performing states in providing for the poorest of the poor, show latest data on the performance of states under a key poverty-eradication initiative of the Central government. The top performers are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, West Bengal and Karnataka.

The April-Dec 2014 data on the Twenty Point Programme show that the four worst performers could not perform wellinoverhalf theschemestargetedat people below the poverty line. The performance is rated on three parameters: very good (where at least 90% of the target is achieved), good (80-90%) and poor (under 80%).

Telangana could achieve "very good" rating in just three schemes, J&K for four and MP and Maharashtra, five each, according to a report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The states were scored on target-oriented parameters, which include assistance to the urban poor under the Seven Point Charter (land tenure, housing at affordable cost, water, sanitation, education, health and social security), construction of rural roads and houses for the economically weaker and low-income groups, planting of seedlings, food security and electrification of villages.

Rajasthan pipped PM Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat to the top slot with better achievement record on the initiative envisaged by former PM Indira Gandhi. Both states had "very good" rating for 14 schemes each, but Rajasthan performed well on the other programmes, where it scored better than national average in two more. Gujarat reported zero performance on three counts. Karnataka is the only Congress-ruled state among the top five.

The ministry used to rank states on their performance under the Twenty Point Programme, before the practice was discontinued by the previous Congress-led government.