Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 31: Citing figures from the Planning Commission’s latest official data, BJP National Executive Member and J&K chief spokesperson, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the National Conference-Congress coalition Government owes an explanation to the people of the State as to why the poverty rate in the State during its tenure has risen from 9.4 per cent to 10.35 per cent.
Dr Jitendra Singh quoted figures indicating that Jammu and Kashmir has around 13.27 lakh people living below the poverty line of whom 10.73 lakh population falls under BPL category in rural areas and another 2.53 lakh lives in urban areas. Till a few years ago, Jammu and Kashmir was showing a constant decrease in poverty rate and its sudden resurgence in last few years is a poor reflection of the performance of the present regime, he said.
What is even more embarrassing is that today Jammu and Kashmir is, along with Arunachal Pradesh, one of the two States of the Indian union, in addition to Union Territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) and Dadar & Nagar Haveli, which continue to show poor performance in poverty alleviation schemes with a progressively upward trend in 2011-12 compared to 2009-10, he added.
Misgovernance, wastage cum pilferage of state exchequer and inequitable financial allocations based on political rather than professional considerations are some of the factors responsible for the economic mess into which the NC-Congress Government has landed the State of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel