Tweet
PUCL jumps into fray on plan panel’s BPL parameters
The controversy on “ridiculous” affidavit on BPL filed by Planning Commission in the Supreme Court does not seem to be settling some time soon. The latest one to join is People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). In a scathing attack, Kavita Srivastava General Secretary PUCL Rajasthan, in an open letter to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said that the affidavit chose to skirt two major issues the Supreme Court has asked, why there should be a poverty line that determines the BPL “caps” and, a request by the Bench to the Planning Commission to re-consider the poverty line. The panel rather chose to repeat the stand taken by it in its last affidavit in May 2011.
“Subsequently, you have gone on defensively to say that the poverty line has no relationship to food subsidy. Yet, all central Government allocations for programmes such as PDS, pensions etc. are made based on these poverty ratios,” the letter reads.
If Rs 25 for rural areas and 32 for urban areas per capita expenditure was “adequate” then it is not clear to us that why Planning Commission members are paid up to 115 times the amount (not counting the perks of free housing and health care and numerous other benefits that are enjoyed by you and members). The right to food campaign challenges you and all the members of the Planning Commission to live on Rs 25 / 32, a day till such time that you are able to explain to the public in simple words the basis of the statement that this amount is normatively “adequate”, Srivastava added in the letter.
“Subsequently, you have gone on defensively to say that the poverty line has no relationship to food subsidy. Yet, all central Government allocations for programmes such as PDS, pensions etc. are made based on these poverty ratios,” the letter reads.
If Rs 25 for rural areas and 32 for urban areas per capita expenditure was “adequate” then it is not clear to us that why Planning Commission members are paid up to 115 times the amount (not counting the perks of free housing and health care and numerous other benefits that are enjoyed by you and members). The right to food campaign challenges you and all the members of the Planning Commission to live on Rs 25 / 32, a day till such time that you are able to explain to the public in simple words the basis of the statement that this amount is normatively “adequate”, Srivastava added in the letter.
