NEW DELHI: Right to Food campaigners, Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander members of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, demanding the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwaila through the panel withdraw the poverty line affidavit before Supreme Court or resign.
The two members of the Right To Food Campaign publicly, who are the prominent members of the UPA think-tank National Advisory Council blamed Ahluwalia for affidavit in particular in an open letter. “Two major issues filed on affidavit by the Planning Commission in the Supreme Court are why there should be a poverty line which shows the BPL and a request on reconsidering the poverty line by the bench to the Planning Commission. On May 2011 the affidavit repeats the stand taken by the Planning Commission, we trust an affront to the poor of this country and also the Supreme Court” they wrote
It says “The affidavit is a document that is neither less significant than the India shining campaign which got the downfall of a previous regime, since it reflected arrogance and contempt for the poor comparable to the views held by the Planning Commission”
“When Planning Commission members are paid up to 115 time the amount without counting the perks for free housing, health care and other benefits, why is that they provide Rs 25 for rural and Rs 32 for urban areas per capita expenditure” they argued
“As the sources of knowledge on how this country’s economy runs after the years of terming from the IMF and World Bank , we believe that the poor need less food than what government rules states as suggested by the misinterpreted FAO” by targeting Ahiuwalia an activist noted.
