India, Oct. 31 -- Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will formally declare Kerala extreme poverty-free on November 1 (Saturday), the state's formation day, at a state-level function in Thiruvananthapuram.

This comes after the Kerala government implemented the state's Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP), first introduced in 2021.

The programme was implemented through a transparent and participatory process involving micro-level projects across the state, PTI news agency quoted local self-government minister M B Rajesh as saying.

The programme was introduced as a mass grassroots-level multidimensional initiative to ensure that no person remains "extremely poor", and is left out of the state's development trajectory.

The initiative...