A technical group to revisit the norms to estimate poverty will be set up within the next two weeks, the Lok Sabha was informed said.

The Planning Commission's new poverty estimates announced last month had created uproar in Parliament leading to demands for removal of the panel's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahuwalia.

"Government has since decided to set up a technical group to revisit the methodology for estimation of poverty and identification of poor taking into account multiple dimensions and indicators of poverty so that the poor and deprived households can obtain the benefit of different government programmes and schemes," Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar said during Question Hour.

"The technical group will be in place in the next two weeks," he said replying to supplementaries.

The poverty ratio in the country had come down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10, Kumar said prompting members to strongly oppose the statement.

Shailendra Kumar (SP) accused the government of making "false claims" and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee to finalise the poverty estimates.

Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) criticised the government for the "faulty" methodology for arriving at the poverty estimates.

"It will be incorrect to say that we have lied. Figures do not lie. We have given the same figures to the Supreme Court," the Minister said.

Speaker Meira Kumar asked the minister to keep in mind the concerns and anxiety of the entire House when the Technical Committee revisits the issue of poverty estimates.

"I hope that when the Technical Committee is revisiting the issue, the concerns and anxiety of the entire House for eradication of poverty, be kept in mind if and when it is implemented," she said.

Ashwani Kumar said the Planning Commission estimates poverty on the basis of survey data of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on household consumer expenditure.

He said the Planning Commission has been coming out with poverty estimates since 1977 based on a methodology that tabulates the expenditure of about one lakh households.

"Since the households have different number of members, the NSSO for purpose of comparison divides the household expenditure by the number of members to arrive at the monthly per capita consumption expenditure," Kumar said.

The Suresh Tendulkar Committee proposed to validate the poverty lines by checking the adequacy of actual private expenditure on food, education and health by comparing them with normative expenditures consistent with nutritional, educational and health outcomes.