BJP Kerala president Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday said the LDF government’s claim of eradicating extreme poverty in the state was made a reality due to the schemes implemented by the central government.
Addressing a press conference here, he said the reduction in poverty in the state is due to the schemes sponsored by the Union government. He said that the poverty levels in Kerala were low even in 2014 and accused the state government of taking an undue amount of time of over 10 years to eradicate this miniscule level of poverty.
“The delay caused by the state government is the reason why it took Kerala ten years to eradicate extreme poverty. While other states are eradicating poverty rapidly, the Kerala government has come to take credit without doing anything,” BJP state president said.
“It is the Central schemes that have freed people from extreme poverty. Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, 35 kg of food grains are distributed to 6 lakh families in Kerala every month. 58 lakh people are provided employment through the employment guarantee scheme. All these are schemes of the Central government,” said Rajiv Chandrasekhar.
“In ten years, 6 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, 3.77 crore in Bihar, 2.30 crore in Madhya Pradesh, 1.87 crore in Rajasthan and 1.59 crore in Maharashtra have been freed from poverty, while Kerala took ten years to free only 2.72 lakh people from poverty.,” he said.
He also alleged that the Pinarayi Vijayan government is changing the names of Central schemes, pasting stickers and stealing credit. The Pinarayi Vijayan government has been continuing this trickery for ten years.The claim of eradicating extreme poverty is the latest example of this.
He said the PM SHRI scheme is a scheme introduced by the Central government targeting the children and youth of the country and added that the Pinarayi Vijayan government has also trampled on this scheme for five years.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will officially declare Kerala as free from extreme poverty at a function to be held at the Central Stadium in the capital on November 1, 2025. Actors Mohanlal, Mammootty and Kamal Haasan will be special guests at the event.
Meanwhile, ahead of the official declaration of Kerala as an “extreme poverty-free” state on November 1, the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers in Kerala have written an open letter to actors Mohanlal, Mammootty and Kamal Haasan, expressing their concerns that the state government’s claim does not reflect the reality faced by the ‘poorest workers”.
In the letter, the ASHA workers highlighted that, despite dedicating 18 years of service to public health, their extreme poverty and daily hardships remain unaddressed. They requested the actors to stay away from the state government’s extreme poverty alleviation programme scheduled to be held on November 1 .
Stating that the extreme poverty alleviation programme is a big lie and a hypocrisy of the Left government, they demanded the actors to stay away from the programme . If the actors participate in the programme,they will become propagators of that big lie, in the letter they said.
They said that their daily wage is a meagre Rs. 233. “We have to spend at least Rs. 100 for a day’s work. How can we support our family with the remaining money?”the ASHA workers asked.