Kannur , Kerala LSGD Minister K M Shaji has said he still maintains his stand that the PM SHRI scheme should be abandoned in the state.
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 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. 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.
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.
Shaji had said that the Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India scheme should be “thrown into the Arabian Sea” While in the opposition.
