A cruel joke

(Photo above Montek Singh Ahluwalia)

Planning Commission is a non statutory body established on 15 March 1950 formulates and prepared 5 year plans for India. Respected prime minister of India is chairman of planning commission and there are some other members who are economists. Respected Montek singh Ahluwalia is the present vice chairman of Planning Commission. We all remember planning commission because few month ago it published figures of poverty line. The Planninig Commission had defined that a person earning Rs28 per day in rural areas is not poor and a person earning Rs32 in urban area is not poor. The figures presented by the Planning Commission is really hard to digest.

However people who are formulating these typical figures formulate these datum sitting in air conditioned room so they do not the real condition of poor.


The cruel joke began when the Planning Commission lavish expenses came in light by RTI reply received by an RTI applicant. The Planning Commission had spent Rs 30 lakh (only) on renovation of 2 toilets in Yojana Bhawan and Rs 5 lakh (only) was spent on installing door access control system.
Also 60 smart cards had been issued to use them, which means that toilet which is to be used by merely 60 persons.
So toilet meant for a handful of persons 35 lakhs were spent on its renovation.


Its is really sad to see data on poverty published by planning commission and lavish expenses incurred by them for toilets on. Even the daily expenses of the vice chairman on foreign visits exceeds Rs 2 lakh per day.