Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has said, the Income Guarantee Scheme being promised by the Congress Party for the poor is fully implementable. Addressing newspersons in Chennai this morning, he said, the scheme would help 25 crore people belonging to five crore families to get lifted up from poverty. <br />''<br />''The former union finance minister said the scheme would be rolled out in phases given the diverse nature of the country. He added, each of the five crore families would get seventy-two thousand rupees a year at the rate of six thousand rupees per month.<br />''<br />''When asked about the financial resources to implement the scheme, Mr Chidambaram said the size of the country's economy post-1991 liberalization has made impressive growth, making the scheme possible. <br />''<br />''He said the size of the economy, as seen from the expenditure by the Centre and the states together, is currently 200 lakh crore rupees. He expressed confidence that it would double in the next five years. He said many prominent economists and subject experts have been consulted before devising the scheme.<br />''<span style="color: #222222;"><br />''Mr Chidambaram rejected reports that former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan had said the scheme is impractical. He said Mr Rajan only said it is feasible but needs to be implemented cautiously.</span><br />