Rural Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday, said that he has requested Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to convene an all-party meeting to discuss measures to involve members of parliament in rural development schemes. Replying to a spate of queries in Lok Sabha during question hour that members were not being involved in rural development programmes, he said, “I am requesting Prime Minister to convene an all party meeting to discuss the matter. I don't want to create any controversy. I agree that MPs have to be given responsibility for formulating and monitoring rural development programmes. He said an earlier all-party meeting convened by his predecessor had not received the requisite response from the political parties. “As per the latest estimates of the planning commission, the percentage of people, living below the poverty line in rural areas, has declined from 56.44 per cent in 1973-74 to 37.27 per cent in 1993-94,” Naidu said.

“The Poverty estimates are made by the Planning Commission on the basis of the large sample surveys on consumer expenditure conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO),” the minister said. Bureau Report