Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy hits out at plan panel’s definition of poor

NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission, which is under fire over its affidavit to the Supreme Court that claimed that Rs 25 a day is enough for a rural poor, on Friday came under fresh attack from within the Congress. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters here that his government is not in agreement with the Planning Commission’s stand.

“How can anyone survive with Rs 25 a day. It is an unrealistic assessment. We are against the commission’s position on the issue,” Chandy told reporters here.

Chandy’s attack on the Plan panel is not surprising as his party is outraged by the claims made by it before the Supreme Court. The commission had claimed that the Tendulkar rural poverty line of Rs 447 per capita per month -- about Rs 15 per day -- at 2004-05 prices, equivalent to roughly Rs 25 per day today after adjusting for inflation, can take care of food, health and education requirements of a rural poor.

The Congress has already asked the government to revise the affidavit. Senior party leaders, too, have been giving vent to their anger over the affidavit. In a letter to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Jairam Ramesh has questioned the methodology for indentifying the poor, particularly when his ministry was in the process of carrying out a BPL census under a formula approved by the Cabinet.

The Kerala chief minister also said the government should not burden the consumer with frequent hikes in the prices of petroleum goods. “My government had to give up Rs 400 crore of taxes in the past four months to shield the common man from the hikes on petrol and diesel prices. We have told Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy that such hikes are not acceptable,” he said.

The adverse public sentiment is also prompting Congress state governments to oppose proposals like FDI in multi-brand retail.

There is acknowledgement in the government that the issue cannot be taken up at this juncture as Opposition will get yet another issue to target the government. A committee had on July 22 proposed that 51% FDI should be allowed in multi-brand retail.