-The Telegraph On Monday mornings, the white ambassadors with red beacons go missing from the premises of the municipality in Visakhapatnam. Instead, a queue of bicycles adorns the parking ground in front of the office. Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyalu and his senior officials may be entitled to government cars but on the week’s first working day, they have to leave the comfort of their cars behind and compulsorily bike to office. It’s all part...

-The Telegraph The controversial poverty data from the Planning Commission has a message for Mamata Banerjee: the Marxists have brought down the number of destitute in Bengal but much more needs to be done. Latest data suggest that the number of poor has dipped by 7.5 percentage points in Bengal between 2004-05 and 2009-10, which covers the last five years of Left rule in the state. Poverty in urban areas in Bengal came...

-The Telegraph The Lok Sabha erupted today over the latest poverty estimates, with calls from the Opposition to disband the Planning Commission and sack its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. “Montek does not know this country and the poor. He is far removed from the ground realities. He should be removed. Close down this Planning Commission. It is of no use,” Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) said. His outrage was at...

-The Business Standard Public discussion on falling poverty hits a new low The Lok Sabha was adjourned for a short duration on Wednesday following an uproar over the government’s latest figures for poverty. This follows widespread public outrage at those figures. A dispassionate observer of this discussion may be led to conclude that either poverty has risen dramatically or the government has somehow fudged the figures inexcusably and obviously. Elsewhere perhaps,...

Montek Singh says he is willing to revise poverty estimates on the basis of expert opinion Though the incidence of poverty has come down over five years from 2004-05 to 2009-10, it is a startling fact that inequality has increased, with fewer people controlling income. Union Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia admitted on Tuesday that income distribution was not at the desired level and inequality increased in both rural and...