Jul 6,@ 12 :55 AM

arun-jaitley in LSFinance minister Arun Jaitley today pitched for passage of land acquisition and GST bills in Parliament. Mr Jaitley said that policy reforms and 8 to 10 per cent economic growth are a must to eliminate poverty. The finance minister said the message from the Socio Economic and Caste Census is clear that growth and economic reforms help the poor as do targeted schemes.

The Census results, released on Friday last, have painted a grim picture of the rural India, highlighting that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood. Mr Jaitley said improving this situation is the number one priority of this government.

The Minister in a Facebook post said the way out to eliminate deprivation is to achieve rapid economic growth of 8-10 per cent so that good jobs are created for all Indians quickly. The latest data, the Minister said, indicates that the investment cycle is slowly turning around and stalled projects were coming on stream at a faster pace. Mr Jaitley said, passing the GST and reforming the land law will accelerate this investment turnaround.