Issues concerning poverty definition resolved: Montek, Ramesh

Amid controversy over the definition of poverty, PlanningCommission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Rural DevelopmentMinister Jairam Ramesh on Monday claimed that they have resolved the issue.

"Jairam and I had a very good meeting. I think we haveresolved a number of important issues... actually all the important issues. Ithink we are in complete agreement," Ahluwalia told reporters after themeeting.

Ahluwalia and Ramesh will also be addressing a joint pressconference later in the day to outline the strategy to counter widespreadcriticism of Rs 32 per capita per day urban poverty line definition .

"There is broad consensus on the linkage betweenpoverty line and rural development," Ramesh said after the meeting, whichamong others was attended by Plan panel members Abhijit Sen, Mihir Shah, SyedaHameed and Narendra Jadhav.

Ahluwalia, who returned from his 10-day-long foreign visiton Saturday, had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue on Sunday.

He had discussed with Singh the fallout of the controversyrelating to the affidavit in the Supreme Court, which said that personsconsuming items worth more than Rs 32 per day in urban areas (Rs 26 in ruralareas) are not poor.

As per the affidavit, a family of five spending less than Rs4,824 per month (at June, 2011, prices) in urban areas will fall in the BPL(Below Poverty Line) category. The expenditure limit for a family in ruralareas has been fixed at Rs 3,905.

The number of poor entitled to BPL benefits, as per theaffidavit, has been estimated at 40.74 crore, as against 37.2 crore estimatedat the time of accepting the Tendulkar Committee report.