PM-KISAN row: BJP slams Sunil Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram: BJP spokesperson M S Kumar has flayed state agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar for “falsely portraying” the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) as a state-sponsored scheme. “Such a false campaign by the minister shows his political silliness,” he said in a statement issued here on Monday.
The BJP spokesperson’s statement came on the heels of Sunilkumar’s allegations that the BJP was trying to project government schemes as party projects. The state and central government ministers on Sunday had sparred over the state-level inauguration of the PM-KISAN scheme, which provides financial support to farmers, and had launched the scheme at two separate functions.

“I would like to know what chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has to say about the visual campaign that used the photographs of the CM and the state agriculture minister to give a wrong impression that PM-KISAN is a state project,” Kumar said.

The scheme ensures financial aid within three days of application, and so far 2.6 lakh farmers have become beneficiaries in Kerala, the BJP leader said. “The prime minister had inaugurated the project at Gorakhpur on Sunday and what took place at Thiruvananthapuram was a live telecast of this function. Union minister of state Alphons Kannanthanam was only attending this live telecast programme,” he clarified.

But, the parallel function organized by the state agriculture minister in Kottayam was “ridiculous and silly”, Kumar asserted. tnn