Mayawati slams NDA government over Rangarajan panel report

NEW DELHI: The new report of Rangarajan Committee on poverty today drew flak from BSP chief Mayawati who attacked the government saying the panel's estimations were nothing but "making a joke of poor people".

"This is nothing but making a joke of poor people. Whatever figures that have been given and the way it has has been calculated, our party does not support it," Mayawati told reporters here on the sidelines of the Budget Session.

As per the report submitted by PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan to Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, persons spending below Rs 47 a day in cities would be considered poor, which is above the Rs 33-per-day mark suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee.

The Rangarajan Committee was set up last year to review the Tendulkar Committee methodology for estimating poverty and clear the ambiguity over the number of poor in the country.

As per the Rangarajan panel estimates, poverty stood at 38.2 per cent in 2009-10 and slided to 29.5 per cent in 2011-12.