UPA government "elevated" poverty: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: The BJP led government today said the previous UPA had left the country in "shambles" with low growth and "elevated" poverty and asserted the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help correct the situation as per people's expectations.

Intervening during a debate in Rajya Sabha on motion of thanks on the President's address, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a lesson of last Lok Sabha polls was "perform or perish" and the people's aspirations had put the additional burden on NDA government.

Terming UPA rule as an era of "missed opportunity", he referred to some specific sectors and said Railways had hardly seen any improvement and so was the case with highways, rural infrastructure, ports and airports.

He said the UPA rule, instead of alleviating poverty as was tom-tommed by it, had "elevated" poverty and the election results were the reflection of public anguish as for the first time since 1984 a single party had got absolute majority.

"The enthusiasm in Indian economy was shattered. Domestic investors were moving out. If there is no investment, there is no job. You have left the country, in your own words, not at poverty alleviation, but at elevated poverty," Jaitley said.

Slamming the Manmohan Singh-led government, he said, the country's growth rate had been disappointing for the last two years at "less than five per cent" despite the fact that it had inherited a healthy 8.5 per cent rate of growth 10 years ago.