Live on this! BJP sends Rs.32 to PM, Sonia
Mocking the government's stand on poverty, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Madhya Pradesh unit has sent demand drafts of Rs.32 each to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, asking them to show how to live for a day on the sum.
Demand drafts of Rs. 26 each were sent to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia with the same request, state unit chief Prabhat Jha said Tuesday.
The BJP’s action came in protest against the Planning Commission’s benchmark of poverty, fixing the cut-off at expenditures of Rs.32 for urban and Rs.26 for the rural areas in the country in an affidavit presented before the Supreme Court.
According to the Planning Commission’s findings, those spending more than Rs 32 in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas would not come under the definition of below poverty line (BPL) cases.
Terming it as a "cruel joke of the poor", Jha said it was a conspiracy on the part of the central government to gradually deprive the poor people from the benefits of many welfare schemes.
