Taking a jibe at Congress leader Rasheed Masood's statement that 'one can eat well' for Rs 5 in Delhi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Friday that these kind of statements mock the plight of the poor in the country.
"I heard someone recently giving a statement that you get food for Rs. 5 in a certain place, but if you go to any Gurudwara, you get free food in the langar (community kitchen). It is a serious situation and all these things are mocking the poor of this country," he told media here.
Earlier, Rasheed Masood said: "You can eat well for Rs 5 in the Jama Masjid area of Delhi."
This comment was criticised by the opposition, which said the government is trying to perpetuate poverty.
"They are very happy to have a Rs.34 poverty line. While rolling down the benchmark, they are trying to roll people out of the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category, depriving them of welfare benefits. This is an anti-poor statement," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
The Planning Commission on July 23 said that the poverty ratio in the country had declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.
The commission estimated the national poverty line for rural areas at Rs 816 per capita per month and for urban areas at Rs 1,000 per capita per month for 2011-12, using the Tendulkar methodology,
This would mean that the people whose daily consumption of goods and services exceed Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs 27.20 in villages are not poor.
