Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 27 (IANS) Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday said that the state’s claim of having eradicated extreme poverty was misleading, asserting that the achievement was made possible entirely through Central Government programmes.

He accused the State Government of delaying implementation and then attempting to claim credit for the results.

Chandrasekhar said Kerala’s administrative inertia was the reason it took a decade to achieve results that other states accomplished much faster.

“While other states acted swiftly to eliminate poverty, the Kerala Government remained inactive for years and is now trying to project the success as its own,” he said.

Citing World Bank data, Chandrasekhar noted that around 170 million people in India had been lifted out of extreme poverty, while in Kerala, only 2.72 lakh people had achieved the same over 10 years.

“It was the Centre’s welfare programmes that brought people out of poverty, not any state initiative,” he added.

He pointed out that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, about 6 lakh families in Kerala receive 35 kg of foodgrains every month, while 58 lakh individuals gain employment through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

“These are Central schemes that have directly supported Kerala’s poor,” Chandrasekhar said.

Comparing performance across states, he said that in the past decade, 6 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, 3.77 crore in Bihar, 2.3 crore in Madhya Pradesh, 1.87 crore in Rajasthan, and 1.59 crore in Maharashtra had been lifted out of poverty.

“Kerala, by contrast, managed only 2.72 lakh,” he said.

Accusing the state of political opportunism, Chandrasekhar said, “For 10 years, the Pinarayi Vijayan government has been rebranding Central projects with new names and stickers to claim credit.”

He described the poverty eradication claim as the latest example, adding that the PM SHRI scheme, aimed at improving education and youth development, was also stalled by the state for five years.

–IANS

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