Poverty line will not be used for selecting welfare scheme beneficiaries: Panagariya

The poverty line is no longer going to be the benchmark for selecting beneficiaries for government welfare programmes.

The States as well as NITI Aayog believe that the line should be used only for tracing poverty and its reduction rather than using it for implementation of government programmes, Arvind Panagariya, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, told newspersons at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Disclosing the discussions at the first regional consultative meeting on elimination of poverty with representatives of the southern States organised by the NITI Aayog, he said the participating States had almost agreed on fixing the benchmark for determining poverty line in such a way that abject poverty could also be measured.

As of now there is no common definition of poverty line as two panels headed by Suresh Tendulkar and C Rangarajan had deployed different formulae to determine the poverty line such as varied rural and urban minimum expenditure, among others.

The use of poverty line as basis for execution of government programmes had already become obsolete as most of the programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) and the Food Security Act (FSA) were universal programmes, Panagariya said.

The State-specific programmes could also come up with their own criteria of eligibility for beneficiaries, he added.

The success of some of the programmes like mid day meals in Tamil Nadu, Self Help Groups in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was also discussed in the meeting as helpful ways to eliminate poverty.

Disinvestment When asked on disinvestment, he said the two-pronged work of dealing with the sick firms and divesting stake in other public enterprises was on. “We hope to complete this as soon as possible,’’ Panagariya said.

On the inflationary trends, he opined that a likely good monsoon could ease the food inflation in the year ahead.

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