After Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar and Congress leader Rasheed Masood, now Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah on Friday has said that one can have full meal for Re.1.
“One can eat for Re.1, if desired. It depends on the common man how much they can afford and they have to manage in that only,” Mr. Abdullah said on the ongoing debate on poverty.
Mr. Masood on Thursday claimed that “one can eat well” for Rs.5 in the national capital, a day after Mr. Raj Babbar said that one can have a full meal for Rs.12 in Mumbai.
“You can eat well for Rs.5 in the Jama Masjid area of Delhi,” Mr. Masood, a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress, said in New Delhi.
The comment has opened floodgates of criticism with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying the government is just trying to perpetuate poverty.
The Planning Commission on Tuesday said poverty ratio in the country had declined to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.
The commission estimated the 2011-12 national poverty line at Rs.816 per capita per month for rural areas and Rs.1,000 per capita per month for urban areas.
This would mean that the people whose daily consumption of goods and services exceed Rs.27.20 in villages and Rs.33.33 in cities are not poor.
