New Delhi: Angered by certain remarks of his cabinet colleague Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has bluntly questioned what Aiyer knew about the poor.
"What does he (Aiyar) know about the poor," shot back the Union Rural Development Minister when asked at a press conference to comment on Aiyar's remarks that the Congress-led coalition could lose the support of aam admi (common man) if it did not undertake a course-correction in its economic policy.
On the occasion of the UPA government completing three years in office, Aiyar had said that he feared that a government attempting to have an economic policy for the aam admi may not get the aam admi's endorsement.
Disagreeing with Aiyar's views, Singh, on the other hand, maintained that the UPA's National Common Minimum Programme was pro-poor, pro-village and pro-Gandhi.
Informing that his ministry has spent Rs 1,14,000 crore during the last three years of the 10th Plan marking a 48 per cent increase in allocation, a visibly angry Singh further retorted asking what amount was spent by Aiyar's Ministry under the Backward Region Grant Fund.
Singh was talking to reporters on the eve of the two-day National Conference on rural roads to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.
Experts from Central and State Governments, financial institutions, engineers and consultants will discuss development of rural roads in the country at the meet.
The Prime Minister will also release "Rural Roads Plan: Vision-2025" document prepared by the Rural Development Ministry for future development of rural roads.
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