Gujarat govt blaming migrant labour for poverty: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress accused the Narendra Modi government of speaking the language of Shiv Sena, slamming the comments of Gujarat minister Nitin Patel that migrant labourers were increasing poverty in the state.

AICC spokesperson Shobha Oza told reporters, "Patel has blamed labourers of Bengal, Odisha, UP and Bihar for increasing poverty in Gujarat when they are actually contributing to growth in the state. The BJP is speaking like Shiv Sena. It has exposed the real face of BJP and the Gujarat government."

The controversial statement on poverty and migrants came in the context of the row generated by a Gujarat circular which states a person earning more than Rs 10.80 a day would not be treated as poor.

While Gujarat blamed the Planning Commission for the low poverty line, Union minister in-charge of planning Rajiv Shukla said Gujarat was obfuscating the issue. "The fact is Gujarat should have accepted the higher poverty line after the plan panel released the Tendulkar report. But this Rs 10.80 poverty line was fixed during the Vajpayee government and BJP wants to continue to live in the NDA era," Shukla said.

The poverty line row has provided Congress an opening to attack the Modi government on the development front. "This is the truth of Modi government. The fact remains that for all the claims of Modi, 33% children in Gujarat are malnourished. The state ranks 19th on the parameters of poverty. He is misleading the country on development," Oza said.

Replying to a question on poverty in Gujarat, Patel had said, "If a BPL card holder's family migrates from other parts of the country to earn a living in Gujarat, he is included in the list. Apart from that, population is also increasing due to which their number is increasing."