KOCHI: Efforts should be made to make Kerala the first state in the country to eradicate poverty within a few years, Local Self Government Minister MV Govindan has said. He was inaugurating the gathering of municipal chairpersons as part of the centenary celebrations of Aluva municipality on Saturday. “In the Niti Aayog list of poverty, Kerala is at the bottom.
The local bodies should identify people facing poverty and should initiate necessary steps to raise their standard of living. They should be enabled to live along with the general public by providing food, employment, treatment, and care to the elderly. This would be possible only through a collective action despite political differences,” the minister said. Door-to-the-door services should be enhanced in all local bodies, he added.