Even the United Progressive Alliance constituent Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday rubbished the Planning Panel's claim that the number of poor people had declined to 21.9 per cent.
The criteria for identifying them should be updated, it said.
Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the figures as a ‘political gimmick’ and a ‘conspiracy’ of the Congress to deprive the poor of the benefits of government schemes while Communist Party of India-Marxist said it amounted to ‘adding salt to the wounds of the poor’.
Commenting on the figures released by the Planning Commission on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "The latest report showing reduction in the number of people below the poverty line is a conspiracy of the Congress against the poor to deprive them of the benefits of BPL schemes.
"This is the Congress mindset against the poor."
He said these poverty figures do not reflect the price rise and is just a ‘political gimmick’ to show more people are now out of poverty by lowering the benchmark.
Biju Janata Dal said the country still has a large population of poor people as he criticised the data that showed the number of those living below the poverty line has shrunk to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05
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