Government is expected to clarify soon to the Supreme Court on the criteria used

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by the Planning Commission to identify below poverty line population in urban and rural areas.

"In the light of the recent directions of the Supreme Court, the Planning Commission is in the process of estimating the revised per capita poverty line as per the Tendulkar Methodology on the basis of 2009-10 survey data on Household Consumer Expenditure, which are now available," Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar told the Lok Sabha.

"We are also in the process of clarifying the matter to the Supreme Court," he said.

Kumar said on applying price increase using Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Industrial Workers for urban areas and CPI for agricultural labourers for rural areas, the poverty line at June 2011 price level comes to Rs 965 per capita per month in urban areas and Rs 781 per capita per month in rural areas.

"For a family of five this poverty line would amount to Rs 4,824 per month in urban areas and Rs 3,905 per month in rural areas at June 2011 price level," he said.

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj wanted to know the reasons for putting a cap on the number of BPL families and carrying out an assessment on the matter at the same time.

She wanted to know what would happen if the quota for BPL families in Madhya Pradesh is fixed at 60,000 and the survey finds their number to be at 65,000.

Kumar said the Planning Commission has suggested estimates of BPL families and not specified any quotas.