Overview
- Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made the declaration in a special Assembly sitting on Kerala Piravi Day, with the Congress-led UDF walking out and labeling the move a fraud.
- The state’s Extreme Poverty Eradication Project identified 64,006 families through a participatory process, prepared family microplans, and drew on dedicated budget lines of Rs 50 crore each in 2023–24 and 2024–25 and Rs 60 crore for 2025–26.
- Government figures cite tangible outputs including 4,677 houses through LIFE Mission, land and house assistance for 2,713 families, and regular food access ensured for over 20,000 families, alongside delivery of essential IDs to more than 21,000 persons.
- A group of academics and civil-society signatories issued an open letter asking the government to release the survey report and methodology, pointing to the gap between 64,006 ‘extremely poor’ families and roughly 5.92 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana households.
- At an evening public event in Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan released an EPEP report, while Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong publicly congratulated the state for the announcement.