India, Nov. 2 -- Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan declared the State as free from extreme poverty at a special session of the Assembly on the occasion of 'Kerala Piravi' (Birthday) on Saturday - November 1, making it the first Indian State to make such a declaration. Vijayan, who called this year's Kerala Piravi the birth of a new era for Kerala, spoke at length about the four-year-long process that led to the declaration. Refuting the Opposition allegations that the declaration was a publicity stunt ahead of the local body elections, he said that the implementation of the Extreme Poverty Alleviation Project (EPEP) was a decision taken in the first Cabinet meeting of the current Left Democratic Front (LDF) in 2021. "We only make pro...