J&K's country's richest state -- Survey

J&K's country's richest state -- Survey
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

New Delhi, Feb 22: The country's detailed poverty data, made public today, has shown up several surprises. The strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as the most prosperous state with merely 3.48 per cent of the population living below the poverty line -- even prosperous Punjab has over 6 per cent of its population below the poverty line.

So, is this due to the fact that the Central Government gives huge grants to the state to meet counter-insurgency operations, and to increase development in the state? Possibly, though Planning Commission sources -- the Planning Commission is in charge of poverty data -- say the reason could be much simpler. That being strife-ridden, the state was never surveyed properly anyway.

Says a senior official, `I would not attach too much importance to the fact that J&K has emerged on the top of the chart as the most prosperous state. Statistics from any trouble-torned state is never accurate. Even in Jammu & Kashmir given the problems there survey would not have actually covered the entire state.'

Statistics reveal that, at the national level, poverty levels have declined by 10 per cent at 26.10 per cent in 1999-2000 from a high of 36 per cent in 1993-94.

Among the deprived states Orissa tops the list with a whopping 47.15 per cent of the population living below the poverty line closely followed by Bihar and UP at 42.60 per cent and 31.15 per cent respectively.

The gap between urban and rural poor is equally large. While 19.32 crore people are officially categorised `poor' in rural India, only 6.7 crore are of urban poors.

In absolute terms, Daman and Diu has only 6 lakh poor accounting for 4.44 per cent of its population preceeding Lakshwadeep with 11 lakh poor.

Among the other states, Delhi has 11.49 lakh people living below poverty line comprising 8.23 per cent of the population. Kerala with cent per cent literacy has a poverty level of 12.72 per cent.

Poverty levels have been estimated on the basis of percapita incomes determined at state levels. Population of the states whose income is below that per capita level are assumed to be below the poverty line.

According to official estimates per capita income levels for the country in the urban area is Rs 454.11 while for the rural area it is Rs 327.56.

Maharashtra tops in terms of urban per capita income at Rs 539.71 while Assam at Rs 343.99 is lower than Bihar which has urban per capita income of Rs 379.78.