On March 21, the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav blamed Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for poverty in the state. He shared an undated news clipping that talked about Niti Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI and stated UP holds the third position in the list of poorest states.
भाजपा के राज में नीति आयोग के प्रथम बहुआयामी ग़रीबी सूचकांक MPI में उप्र देश के सबसे ग़रीब तीन राज्यों में शामिल है; सबसे अधिक कुपोषण में उप्र तीसरे स्थान पर है तथा बाल व किशोर मृत्यु दर श्रेणी में पूरे देश में उप्र सबसे ख़राब स्थिति में है।
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 21, 2022
ये भाजपा सरकार की नाकामी के तमगे हैं। pic.twitter.com/zgnZJEkFB0
Yadav, in a tweet in Hindi, wrote, “In the first multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of NITI Aayog under the BJP rule, UP is among the three poorest states in the country; UP ranks third in the highest malnutrition rate and in the child and adolescent mortality rate category, UP is in the worst position in the whole country. These are the badges of failure of the BJP government.”
Though it is true that Niti Aayog had put UP at third position in the overall poverty index, it has to be noted that the MPI report is not recent but was released in November 2021. Explaining the report, in an official press release, it was said that the MPI report was based on NFHS-4 data that was collected in 2015-16. At that time, BJP was not in power in the state. Also, the BJP-led government in the centre had spent only two years by then in power.
Sidharth Nath Singh, Cabinet Minister, MSME, quoted Yadav and said, “The report is showing thorns of your government on which the people of Uttar Pradesh had walked towards poverty. The data is from the National Family Health Survey-4 (the Year 2015-16). Whereas in the current preliminary report of 2020-21 shows poverty has decreased by 15 per cent.”
बोया पेड़ बबूल का, आम कहां से होय?@yadavakhilesh जी,यह रिपोर्ट आपकी सरकार के काँटों को दर्शा रही है जिस पर चलकर प्रदेश का नागरिक गरीबी की ओर चल उठा था।
— Sidharth Nath Singh (@SidharthNSingh) March 21, 2022
ये डाटा नेशनल फैमिली हेल्थ सर्वे-4 (वर्ष 2015-16) का है। जबकि वर्तमान 2020-21 की प्रारंभिक रिपोर्ट में गरीबी 15 फ़ीसदी घटी है। https://t.co/H5rtBxE1dY
Furthermore, during the period of 2015-16, the Akhilesh Yadav-led government was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Yadav ignored these facts and tried to mislead the public with an updated news clipping that too about a report that was based on the data collected during the period when he was CM of UP. In the press release, it was said that further progress of the country will be calculated on the base of NFHS-5 data that was collected in 2019-21.
