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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Local Self Government Minister MB Rajesh on Friday hit out at the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit for giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for helping the state become the first state in the country to eradicate extreme poverty.
Rajesh said, “Some people are claiming that the credit for this should go to Prime Minister Modi. He can take the credit for this only when the whole of India will be free from extreme poverty.”
He said this while defending Kerala’s move to declare itself the first state in India to eradicate extreme poverty.
Incidentally, the formal announcement on Saturday will be made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and he will be accompanied by veteran superstars – Mammootty, Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan.
Kerala BJP leaders are saying that if PM Modi had not been there, this work would not have been done in Kerala and Minister Rajesh has taken a dig at this statement.
Minister Rajesh rejected criticism that the decision was taken hastily or politically motivated.
“This was not decided overnight. This was part of the first cabinet meeting of this government. A detailed set of guidelines was published, and if anyone had read them, there would have been no scope for confusion,” he said.
Minister Rajesh clarified that the announcement does not mean that Kerala has completely eliminated poverty, but has eliminated extreme poverty as defined by the government.
He said, “Included in the list are those who have not yet received the benefit of any government welfare scheme. The claim is not that poverty itself has ended.”
He also asked why the experts who now criticize the process did not raise concerns earlier.
Minister Rajesh said, “If such issues had been reported earlier, we would have addressed them.” He said the project was conducted in a transparent manner and not with secrecy.
Even as the state prepares for the official announcement on Kerala Foundation Day on Saturday, criticism has emerged from the grassroots.
In places like Vattachira Paniya Colony in Kozhikode district, many families are living in severe hardships and some experts working in the field have also highlighted that all that glitters is not gold.
–IANS