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Patna,(BiharTimes): Neither the Centre nor the Nitish Kumar government’s figure on BPL appears to be correct, if the Tendulkar report submitted to the Planning Commission is to be believed.
It puts the percentage of population below poverty line (BPL) in Bihar at 55 per cent and not 43 per cent as previously believed.
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Chief minister Nitish Kumar has repeatedly been stating that there are 1.5 crore BPL families in Bihar. If one family has five members than the total population living below poverty line would be something around 7.5 crore or more. In the state having the population of just over nine crore the percentage of people living below the poverty line would be over 80 per cent. In that way the state government figure seems to be too exaggerated.
Though Nitish said the Tendulkar Committee report had vindicated his stand to a large extent the truth is that the report’s figure is more close to the earlier figure of 43 per cent than 80 per cent given by the state government.
It is on the basis of the latest figure that Nitish went on to say that the planners for poverty eradication in Delhi live in a make-believe world and give imaginary figures about the BPL population.
He was quoted in a section of media recently as saying that “ever since we came to power, we have been maintaining that the yardsticks used to identify BPL families is not for identification of poor but of a daridr (pauper).”
The irony is that till 2004 it was the NDA which was in power in the Centre and state was ruled by Rabri Devi. The then opposition used to flay the then state government for the rise in the poor. Today, the state government itself is saying that the number of poor are almost double than what is stated.
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