PM to discuss poverty line with plan panel

With Parliament expected to run normally today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called senior Planning Commission officials to discuss the issue of capping the poverty line.

With Parliament expected to run normally on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called senior Planning Commission officials to discuss the issue of capping the poverty line.

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Singh, who is the chairperson of the Planning Commission, is expected to address this issue in Parliament. The panel's deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia is expected to brief the PM on poverty related issues.

Government sources said the opposition parties may ask the PM to reply on poverty line considering the embarrassment it had caused earlier.

The panel on basis of National Sample Survey Organisation data had computed that those spending less than Rs 32 in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas were poor. It had led to a furore, with civil society claiming that it was not possible for any human being to survive on this amount.

The government then decided to delink poverty line from welfare schemes. Now, the benefits will be based on the level of deprivation to be derived from a Below Poverty Line survey being conducted by the rural development ministry.