Poverty saw steepest fall under UPA regime since 2004: PM

New Delhi: The poverty ratio in the countryhas fallen steeply during the UPA regime to 21.9 percent in2012 from 37.2 per cent in 2004, said the UPA Government’sReport Card released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today.

“Under the UPA government, poverty in India has declinedin an unprecedented manner. Average decline in poverty was 2percent per annum during 2004-2012, almost twice the rateof the preceding decade,” said the report card.It said the number of poor people came down to 26.93

crore, which was 21.9 percent of the total population in2012, from 40.71 crore in 2004 when the UPA government came topower.

According to the the report card, the government launched16 flagship programmes in both rural and urban areas duringthe 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), and fund allocation forthem has been more than double for the 12th Five Year Planperiod which began from April 2012.

The report highlights that the expenditure on flagshipprogramme like rural employment guarantee scheme has beenincreased by more than 100 percent for the 12th Plan.The document stated that the Plan outlay for flagshipschemes was increased to Rs 15,46,648 crore for the entire12th Five Year Plan compared to Rs 6,93,347 crore spent in the11th Plan.

The report said, “Unemployment rate in the country issteadily declining due to UPA government’s economic policies.“As per the report, the rate of unemployment came down to5.6 percent in 2012 from 8.2 percent in the 2004.Besides, it also stated that average industrial growthduring the 2004-05 to 2011-12 period has been the highest everat 8.5 percent per annum, creating productive employment foryoung people.

“National Skills Development Authority has been workingwith other stakeholders, including the private sector, totrain 50 million people for the workforce during the next fiveyears,” it added.

PTI