The Congress on Monday asked the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to apologise to the poor of the nation for “insulting” and making a “mockery” of them for classifying Below Poverty line (BPl) criteria at below Rs 10.80 daily in Gujarat.
AICC general secretary Ajay Maken reminded Modi and his party that BJP had made a big issue of Planning Commission’s BPl figure of Rs 32 and Rs 28 a day in urban and rural areas and had described it as a “joke”.
“leaders and spokespersons of the BJP were mocking the poverty determination figures given by the Planning Commission. Now we ask the BJP and Modi, why Gujarat Government’s civil supply department talked about BPl below Rs 10.80IJ People of the country want to know this. By giving this figure is the Modi-led BJP Government not playing a joke with peopleIJ BJP and Modi both should apologise to the nation, to the poor for insulting and making a mockery of them,” Maken said at the hurriedly-called AICC briefing.
The Congress also released a copy of the website page of the Gujarat Government regarding the BPl criteria for consideration of families to be covered under the Antyodaya Yojana in the State, which said that under the scheme those families, whose members’ average monthly income is Rs 324 in rural areas and up to Rs 501 in urban areas in a month are covered.
Maken, who also heads the AICC communication department, questioned the need for the State Government’s circular, which he said was posted on the website on December 16, 2013, saying why it was required when most of the Central Government schemes including food security have already been delinked from BPl and the States can decide whom to include in the list of beneficiaries on the basis of household deficiency, social deficiency and economic and occupational deficiency.
To a question as to whether he justifies the fixation of BPl at Rs 32 in urban areas and Rs 28 in rural areas, the AICC leader replied in the negative, saying, “We are not defending Rs 32 BPl criteria. The only point we are making is that if Rs 32 criteria was a joke, then what should the Rs 10.80 criteria be calledIJ”