There is an apocryphal (meaning 'unauthenticated') story about how the Bureaucrats in the Defence Ministry in Delhi sat on requests for Defence personnels personal equipments and accessories needed to survive in Kargil. When the new Defence Minister tood charge ( if my memory serves me correctly, it was George Fernandez), he was quietly seething about this delay, and promptly arranged a Kargil trip to the non performing bureaucrats, comfortably sitting in Delhis A/C offices. On their return from Kargil, where even breathing in the cold high altitude climate is a torture, the files were cleared lighting fast.
I was reminded of this story when I heard the laughable parameters set by the apex body Planning Commission of India to describe those who are poor.
According to the Planning Commission, any family earning Rs 20 or below in the urban areas, or Rs 15 or below in the Rural Areas only can be construed to be Below the Poverty Line!!!. If urban family earns Rs 21 or the rural family earns Rs 16 per day, then they cease to get the benefit that accrues the BPL families.
This when the UN is talking about setting the cut off for poverty as $ 2 per day or Rs 90 approx., per person!
All I can recommend is to kick Montek Singh Ahulwalia and his team, who dreamed up the new definition of poverty, to the street and ask them, with their family, to live for a month on Rs 20 per day in Delhi. When they come back, the poor will get the justice they deserve. Sometimes simple direct action makes a huge difference.
I am more than willing to finance this project ass kicking.
