The chief minister pointed out that the government’s goal is to raise the standard of living in Kerala to the level of middle-income countries in the developed countries of the world in the next 25 years….reports Asian Lite News
Reacting to the controversial film ‘The Kerala Story’, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the the real Kerala story was that the state is the most literate with infant and maternal mortality rates at par with developed countries.
“Our government schools and hospitals have been adjudged as the best in the country by several agencies, including NITI Aayog and so on. No amount of false propaganda can undo any of this. We will definitely project what the real Kerala story is. The real Kerala story contains the peaceful life the society leads here, transcending the barriers of religion, the sense of oneness that every Keralite imbibes, which is marked by the noble values of fraternity displayed in abundance in our social life and the sizeable contribution the NRKs fetch to the foreign reserves of India,” the chief minister told The New Indian Express in an interview.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had released the progress report of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, highlighting its achievements during the last two years.
The chief minister pointed out that the government’s goal is to raise the standard of living in Kerala to the level of middle-income countries in the developed countries of the world in the next 25 years. The government’s ongoing development projects for the past seven years are bringing the state closer to this goal, he said in a statement.
When the LDF government came to power in 2016, Rs 1473.67 crore was outstanding in various pension schemes. At that time there were people who did not get a pension for two years. The pension amount was increased from Rs 600 to Rs 1600. 18997 crore was disbursed as a social pension. This is accepted because it is a government committed to the poor. That is the policy of the government, CM stated.
The unemployment rate dropped from 12 per cent to 5 per cent in the state. The number of enterprises launched under the scheme, which started with the announcement of one lakh enterprises a year, has reached 1,40,000. Many people are coming now showing interest in investment. A good portion of them are women. An investment of around 8500 crore rupees was made through the entrepreneurial year. It also provides employment opportunities for around three lakh people, he said.
Reacting to the BJP’s focus on Kerala, the CM said, “We have been denied even the promised projects such as the railway zone, coach factory, etc. One should not miss the forest for the trees. The people of Kerala are aware of the share of taxes that have been denied to us, the funds that we were prevented from receiving, the limit of borrowings that have been curtailed, the projects that have been turned down and so on. They are also aware that for every rupee that is generated as revenue from Kerala, the Union does not even utilise even a meager portion of it for our state. So, the people are in no way going to be carried away by propaganda.”
He said that Kerala Startup Mission has been selected as the best business incubator in the world. Kerala’s own project Kochi Water Metro, Rs 1500 crore digital science park project and various IT parks are indicators of Kerala’s progress. Multinational companies are coming here. Kerala is being noticed to a large extent, the CM noted.
“There were many who thought that there would be no change here and that no change should be expected. This was caused by the backwardness of the education and health sectors, which were the pride of the country, and the decay and corruption in the cultural standards. It is from this condition that the present-day Kerala was resurrected. Kerala has survived all the calamities and is progressing. Attempts are being made to spread lies to downplay this movement,” he said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that he wants to take Kerala to more heights and make possible a new Kerala and this can only be achieved with unity and unity.
“Some people are raising criticism by hiding the changes that have taken place in Kerala in the last six years. Kerala has not fallen behind in any field and has not frozen anywhere,” the Chief Minister stated by presenting the figures.
