Kannur (Kerala), Aug 16 (PTI) Kerala LSGD Minister K M Shaji has said he still maintains his stand that the PM SHRI scheme should be abandoned in the state.
While in the opposition, Shaji had said that the Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme should be “thrown into the Arabian Sea”.
After the UDF came to power, Left parties attacked Shaji over his earlier remark, as the state government did not cancel the PM SHRI scheme and instead appointed a Cabinet sub-committee to study the matter.
It was the previous LDF government that signed an agreement with the Centre on PM SHRI, but kept it in abeyance following protests, including from within the Left front.
Speaking at a Youth League event in Kannur on Saturday, the Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) Minister said his earlier statement about throwing the scheme into the Arabian Sea had now become a major talking point.
“However, what I said was politics. Once you become a minister, it cannot be said, and you should only speak about your own department,” he said.
Shaji said there was no change in his earlier stand on PM SHRI just because power has been attained.
“It should be thrown out—if not into the Arabian Sea, then into whatever drain lies beyond it. I have no difference of opinion on that. I am not someone who is going to change that stance,” he said.
He, however, said that in coalition politics, no single party can act on its own.
“But what you must understand is that when we hold a collective responsibility, we cannot act entirely on our own,” he said.
Shaji’s party, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), had strongly opposed the implementation of PM SHRI in Kerala while it was in opposition.
The current Kerala General Education Minister N Samsudheen is also from the IUML. PTI TBA TBA ADB
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