'Modi's comparison between Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand based on Planning Commission data'

Chhattisgarh Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar on Wednesday rubbished a news report which claimed that BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi "derided" Jharkhand while drawing a comparison with Chhattisgarh on parameters of development and poverty.

"The Planning Commission's data reflects true picture which shows Chhattisgarh ahead of Jharkhand and substantiates Modi's contention," Chandrakar said in a press statement.

He was reacting to a newspaper report which said that "Jharkhand?has a lower poverty rate and a higher per capita income as compared to Chhattisgarh".

"It should be remembered here that Modi's intention was not to deride Jharkhand but to exhort it to march ahead on the path of development," the minister said.

In his public rally in Jharkhand, Modi had said "people of Jharkhand remained poor despite the state being rich in mineral resources whereas the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh sped ahead on the path of development".

"Poverty indicators used in the statistical table (published in the newspaper) are taken from latest poverty estimates of National Sample Survey Organisation 2011 but are misinterpreted to project relatively higher poverty estimates for Chhattisgarh," Chandrakar said.

The minister said as far as poverty was concerned the NSSO data do not cover per-capita income but captures monthly per capita expenditure for?the purpose of determination of state-specific poverty line. "However, the data table in the news item has wrongly interpreted the poverty line as per capita income," he added.

"According to Planning Commission's data, the latest per capita income (at current prices) of Chhattisgarh stands at Rs.52,689, which is 21 per cent higher than Jharkhand's Rs.43,384," Chandrakar said, adding that decline in poverty in Chhattisgarh is sharper than Jharkhand.

He said the newspaper used "selective data and facts to deliberately show Modi in the poor light while the actual figures reported on the Planning Commission website endorse Modi's claim about Chhattisgarh being more prosperous than Jharkhand".