Thou shall not spend more

Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia is in a generous mood.

He has agreed to revise the definition of “ Poor People “, as those, who cannot afford to spend more than

Ø  Rs.15/ day in rural areas ( from earlier Rs.12/day )

Ø  Rs.20/day in urban areas ( from earlier Rs. 17/day )

And he has even spelled out exactly how much they should spend on various items, as follows :

Ø  Food ………………………………….. Rs.7.25/day

Ø  Fuel  ………………………………….. Rs.2.35/day

Ø  Clothing  ……………………………. Rs.1.28/day

Ø  Education …………………………… Rs.0.62/day

Ø  Footwear  ………………………….. Rs.0.20/day

Ø  Entertainment …………………… Rs.0.22/day

Now, if this is not precise enough, he mandates that the rural poor shall manage to consume 2400 calories, by spending Rs.7.25 ( $ 0.16 ) per day on food.

Montek can earn a lot of carbon-credit by claiming that these 387 million people have zero carbon footprint !

Supreme Court judges, Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma are not amused.

They have directed Planning Commission to further revise the per capita norms of consumption.

With regards

Hemen  Parekh