NEWS ROUND-UP-6
Coming down heavily on the UPA government for repeatedly insulting the poor by issuing false statistics on poverty, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) alleged that the UPA government is conspiring to reduce budget for poverty alleviation programmes. “Whenever the government talks about subsidy reduction, it only talks about the subsidy given to economically weaker sections and never talks about the subsidy given to corporate houses. During the year 2011-12, the government granted exemption of total Rs 4,87,112 crore rupees (Rs 51,292 crore in income tax, Rs 2,12,167 crore in excise duty and Rs 2,23,653 crore in custom duty) to the corporate houses. If the government removes this exemption to corporate houses, there will be no need to repeatedly insult the poor people by issuing false statistics,” said BMS north zone organising secretary Shri Pawan Kumar.
Commenting on the statistics issued by the government claiming that the number of poor has declined in the country, he said the government is basically preparing grounds for introducing Food Security Bill which will truly prove to be ‘food insecurity bill’, if implemented. “The Planning Commission claims that a person can survive at Rs 28.65 in cities and at Rs 22.42 in villages. Can Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia survive on this amount in any of the city,” he asked.
(FOC)
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