Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 3 : Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Monday slammed the Kerala government's claim that the state has eliminated extreme poverty, calling it a 'PR stunt built on manipulated data.'

Satheesan's remarks came two days after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced in a special Assembly session and later at a grand public event in Thiruvananthapuram that the state is now free of extreme poverty.

He accused the CPI(M) of launching cyberattacks on economists and social scientists who exposed the government's manipulated statistics.

'Even as the government celebrated the so-called declaration, a hunger-related death was reported in Thiruvananthapuram that very day. The claim that there are no ultra-poor in Kerala is a lie. The government has not even spent the budgetary allocation for poverty alleviation,' Satheesan told reporters in the capital.

He said the Opposition had never criticised the decision to assist 64,000 poor families, but the government had turned the announcement into a propaganda exercise.

'If CPI(M) were in Opposition, they would have opposed it too,' he remarked.

Satheesan alleged that the party's cyber cells had viciously attacked experts such as R.V.G. Menon, Dr. K.P. Kannan, M.K. Das, Dr. M.A. Oommen, and Aravindakshan for questioning the official poverty data.

'If Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had the power to exile people, he would have driven them out of Kerala,' he said.

Referring to Local Self-Government Minister M.B. Rajesh's recent comments ridiculing the Opposition, Satheesan said the government had become intolerant of dissent.

'This is not Stalin's Russia; this is democratic Kerala. People will continue to criticise and expose false claims,' he asserted.

The Opposition leader further alleged that the state had diverted funds earmarked for housing the poor to hold lavish celebrations, including bringing film stars and MLAs to Thiruvananthapuram for a grand event.

'Was the celebration and massive publicity blitz funded using Rs 1.5 crore taken from money meant for the poor'? he asked.

The government is deceiving the people, and we will reveal the full truth before the elections,' he warned.

/IANS