New Delhi: Kerala chief minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Pinarayi Vijayan has rejected the Union government’s directive to install selfie points featuring cut outs of Prime Minister Narendra at big ration shops under the centrally sponsored PM Garib Kalyan Yojana.
“It’s certainly part of the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. We will inform the Centre that it is not right and it’ll be difficult to implement here,” Vijayan told the state assembly on Monday (February 12). “We will also examine if this can be brought to the attention of the Election Commission.”
A senior official in Kerala’s food ministry gave The Telegraph two reasons why the state felt the branding instruction was unfair:
“First, the Yojana, introduced during the pandemic and later extended, is to be wrapped up by December 31 this year, leaving the states to shoulder the free-grain scheme entirely from next year.
Second, apart from distributing the Yojana’s 5kg free food grains to the eligible below-poverty-line (BPL) people — 43 per cent of Kerala’s population — the ration shops disburse state government-provided subsidised food grains to the remaining 57 per cent, too.”
‘Selfie points’ have been a big part of the Union government’s campaign in the run up to Lok Sabha election. They have been put up in public spaces, railway stations, educational institutions, etc. – all at the taxpayers’ cost.
This is not the first time a state government is protesting against the Modi regime’s insistence on his face being associated with welfare schemes. The Union government has withheld funds from West Bengal for refusing to print the prime minister’s photographs on bags used to distribute ration.
