Digvijay Singh joins Kapil Sibal to dispute plan panel's poverty figures

After statements by a couple of Congress party leaders that a person could eat a square meal in Mumbai or Delhi for Rs12  or less, party general secretary and senior spokesman Digvijaya Singh, former Madhya pradesh chief minister, today joined Union minister Kapil Sibal in questioning the criteria used by the Planning Commission to give a rosy picture of poverty reduction in India.

"I have always failed to understand the Planning Commission criteria for fixing the poverty line. It is too abstract. Can't be same for all areas," the Congress general secretary said on Twitter.

In another tweet, Singh made a strong pitch for linking poverty with malnutrition and anaemia.

"First indicator of poverty is malnourishment and anaemia in the family which is easily measurable. Can't we have that as a criteria?" (sic) he said.

His remarks came a day after Sibal challenged the method used by the Planning Commission to calculate poverty, saying a family of five cannot live on Rs5,000 a month as the commission believes.

"If the Planning Commission said those who live above Rs5,000 a month are not at poverty line, obviously there is something wrong with the definition of poverty in this country. How can anybody live at Rs5,000?" he had said in Kolkata on Friday.

The plan panel released the latest poverty estimates for the country earlier this week, which showed that the percentage of people below the poverty line (BPL) declined sharply to 21.9 in 2011-12 from 37.2 in 2004-05 (See: Nearly 22% of Indians live in poverty: Plan panel).

It said that for a family of five, the BPL cap in terms of expenditure would amount to Rs4,080 per month in rural areas and Rs5,000 per month in urban areas.

The incredible remarks about the cost of a meal in India were made by Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar (a former Bollywood actor), who later apologised saying his statement should not be attributed to his party, and Rasheed Masood, also considered a party leader. The Congress is the lead party in the United Progressive Alliance government.