Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar is no more the poorest state of India. Its place has been taken by Chhattisgarh, a BJP-ruled state, which the saffron party often highlights for various achievements. Even Jharkhand witnessed much faster decline in poverty than Odisha.

In two years period between 2009-10 and 2011-12 Bihar recorded highest dip in poverty ratio––by almost one-third.

According to the C Rangarajan panel on poverty estimation report in Bihar the poverty ratios dipped from 63.9% in 2009-10 to 41.3% in 2011-12. Though it declined by about 22 percentage points in absolute terms Bihar has 21 million lesser poor people now.

Bihar has been replaced by Chhattisgarh, where the panel has categorised 47.9% of the people as being poor. In 2009-10, the figure was 53.8%.

Rangarajan panel’s definition of poverty is based on “basic standard of well being” including spending on food, education, transport and house rent.

Poverty, according to report, is still a huge concern in Maoist-hit states even though the outgoing Manmohan Singh government had spent over Rs 4,600 crore in 83 districts over four years period starting 2010-11 under Integrated Action Plan (IAP). The IAP has been launched to bridge development deficiency in these districts. Eight districts of Bihar were covered under IAP.

Odisha and Jharkhand also find themselves high on the poverty ratio scale. About 45.9% of people in Odisha were poor in 2011-12 as compared to 48.3% in 2009-10.

In Jharkhand, 42.4% were poor in 2011-12 as compared to 52.1% in 2009-10. So the decline in poverty here is much faster than Odisha.

Sources said that the report confirms that Bihar, and to some extent Jharkhand too, succeeded in implementing the poverty alleviation programmes of the central government in a much better way than Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The irony is that in both these states the ruling party/combination have been virtually wiped out in the recent Lok Sabha election while in Chhattisgarh and Odisha the BJP and Biju Janata Dal swept the election.