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Monday 3 October 2011

A poverty line cap -- Rs 32 in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas

A poverty line cap -- Rs 32 in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas -- is unlikely to be revised but the Planning Commission would submit a clarification affidavit in the Supreme Court explaining need for expenditure based cap. The plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who returned from 10-day foreign visit on Saturday, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and admitted that the affidavit saying that per capita per day expenditure of Rs 32/Rs 26 was enough to sustain oneself had created confusion.Hindustan Times Reports!

Meanwhile, Business Standard published a story titled GROWTH Will Come From the Small Cities! It is in line with the Agenda of Second Generation of Reforms outlined by PRANAB`s Budget this year! The Small Cities and Whole Agrarian RuraL Sector would be Targeted to ESCALATE the EXCLUSIVE Free Market Economy!

Amid a raging controversy over the Rs 32 per capita per day poverty line definition, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today and will clarify the panel's stand on the issue on Monday. It means that the EXTRACONSTITUTIONAL Elements do dictate Terms!And their Dicision has to be IMPLEMENTED whatever may come!Add the CIVIL Society, NGOs, PPP Model and Pro US Democratic Movement Excluding the MULNIVASI BAHUJAN, the Minorities, SC, ST, OBC and also the NON Brahamin Non Aryan Communities, the NINETY Five Percent of the Population! You would see the Geopolitics of MONOPOLISTIC Aggression and Massive Disaster IMPENDING!

On the other hand,the CBI, which had said that it was still probing the role of RADAG chairman Anil Ambani in the 2G scam, has given a clean chit to him in the structuring of different companies and transfer of funds relating to Swan Telecom which got a spectrum licence.

Brahaminical Hegemony and LPG Mafia do CELEBRATE the Mass Destruction and Overwhelming ARYAN BRAHAMINICAL Venegeance as Gandhi Jayanti is CELEBRATED with NAVRATRI and DURGA PUJA. Goddess Durga is INVOKED to Destroyed us! While Dr. Ambedkar Made it very Clear what Gandhi and Congree have DONE to Untouchables. Agencies report, Schoolchildren, slum kids, politicians and diplomats were among thousands who paid homage to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhiat his memorial here on Sunday when the nation celebrated his 142nd birth anniversary. Many who had queued up since early morning recounted his lasting message of truth and non-violence. Gandhi sought CRUELEST Form of VIOLENCE within Buddha`s NON VIOLENCE as HE ENSURED BRAHAMIN BANIA RAJ and even Marginaliged the RAJPUTS!

The Planning Commission deputy chief, who returned from a 10-day foreign visit on Saturday, met the Prime Minister today for the first time since the controversy erupted after an affidavit filed by the Plan panel in the Supreme Court.

Ahluwalia is believed to have discussed the fallout of the controversy relating to the affidavit, which said that persons consuming items worth more than Rs 32 per day in urban areas (Rs 26 in rural areas) are not poor, with the Prime Minister.

As per the affidavit, a family of five spending less than Rs 4,824 (at June, 2011, prices) in urban areas will fall in the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category. The expenditure limit for a family in rural areas has been fixed at Rs 3,905.

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

Officials in the Planning Commission have said that providing benefits to more persons would defeat the purpose of the anti-poverty programme.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is believed to have intervened in the matter and has reportedly asked the Plan panel to do a rethink on its definition of poverty.

Ahluwalia is also scheduled to meet Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday to discuss the issue.

The government is working on a proposal to issue multi-purpose smart identity cards to all adult citizens by the end of 2013, a move that could result in cost savings for the exchequer.

"The proposal has been made under Citizenship Act amendment made in 2003. The Registrar General of India has proposed to issue smart identity cards to all citizens of the country above 18 years, which is under consideration by the Department of Expenditure," a senior official of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RGCC) said.

These cards can be also used in the place of ration, toll and election cards, among others, resulting in lower costs for the government, as a single card could serve various purposes rather than a separate ones for each service.

The official said adults constitute approximately 65 per cent of the country's population and the government estimates that each smart card will cost about Rs 50.

"The final cost will be decided based on the recommendation received from the technical committee which has been set up under the Director General of NIC, B K Gairola," the official said.

He added that the recommendations from the technical committee are expected to be out by October-end.

Among other things, the proposed smart identity cards will carry Aadhar numbers issued by the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), photographs, biometric data like finger prints and an iris scan of the card holder on an electronic chip.

According to industry experts, these cards could be used by the state and the central government to replace various other cards and even the cost of each card can brought down.

"Both the state and central government can use these smart cards to provide a variety of services. Multi-purpose smart cards have the potential to work for several applications such as ration cards, toll cards, election cards or citizen ID cards or any application you can think of," smart card and biometric market expert S Swarn of Electronics Today said.

Swarn added that cost of cards can also go down if government applications are loaded on the same card, rather than issuing a separate smart card for each individual application.

Last week, Registrar General of India C Chandramouli said the government will start the distribution of approximately eight million smart identity cards in 3,331 coastal area villages in the next two months.

"The basic objective of issuing these cards is to identify citizens of the country and check infiltration. However, more can be done with these cards," the official said.

11 AUG, 2011, 03.45AM IST, VIKAS DHOOT,ET BUREAU

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