Congress Strongly Disputes NITI Aayog Claims On Poverty
New Delhi, February 27: The Congress today strongly disputed the NITI Aayog claims on poverty in the country that only five percent people were poor. The party said these fictitious figures were deliberately being dished out to set a particular narrative that was far from the truth and reality.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, the party spokesperson and Chairperson of the Social Media and Digital Platforms Supriya Shrintate pointed out, that even this report has the devil in the details. According to this report the bottom 5% Indians survive on just ₹46 daily for food, clothing, medicine, education and transportation. The report points to the widening gap between the poor and rich and between the urban and rural India. According to the report 5% richest people in rural India spend 8 times more than the poorest 5%. In urban India richest 5% spend 10 times more than poorest 5%.
According to the NITI Aayog figures there are only five percent people who are poor, which makes it seven crores. While welcoming the free ration to the poor, she asked, if only seven crore Indians are poor, why does the government then need to provide free ration to 81 crore Indians? Even this, she pointed out, was possible because of the Food Security Act brought in by the UPA.
The Congress spokesperson said that during the last six months, the NITI Aayog had given three different figures on three different occasions. She pointed out, in July 2023, the NITI Aayog said that 19.28 percent people were poor and a few weeks ago it said, 11 percent people in the country were poor and now it claims that only 5 percent people in the country are poor.
She warned that when the economic data is distorted like this, the credibility of the data gets questioned and the investments get stopped. She asked why the Modi government was distorting the economic data.
Ms Shrinate said, much against the rosy picture being sought to be created by distorting the data, the actual truth is that as many as 7 crore Indians are made to live on a paltry Rs 46 per day in which they have to manage food, clothing, transport, medicines and education of their children.
Referring to the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the country, she disclosed that the five percent richest in the urban areas spend ten times more than the five percent poorest in the urban areas, while the five percent richest in the rural areas spend eight times more than the five percent poorest there. She asked, why the Modi government was not making any efforts to bridge this widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Referring to the declining purchasing capacity of the people in the country, she said, 35 crore Indians were not in a position to even afford a two-wheeler or a car. She disclosed that the growth of the two-wheeler sales has come to 0.7 percent from nine percent during the UPA regime.
Ms Shrinate said, the savings have also fallen under the NDA government. She said, the percentage of savings has come down to 5.1 percent to the GDP as compared to 11.5 percent earlier. She said, people were spending more not because they have more purchasing power, only because of the rising prices.
She said that India was continuously dipping on the hunger index as 7.7 percent of children were malnourished.
